Beautiful Items
by UndercaringUnderpaidNarrator
Summary: In the midst of Duelist Kingdom, Amy will fight. She'll fight for her goals, for a lost spirit from 5000 years ago hoping to find Yami, and she'll fight for the future that spirit showed her. Amy will battle to protect Yugi and all he holds dear... but she'll only become truly happy in this new life when she learns to fight for herself.
1. Prologue I: First Encounter in Domino

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: Ha. Disclaimers. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ was written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. I wish to call upon Fair Use to use it to practice my narrating skills and screw around in my free time. Doth I claim ownership? Ah [4filter] no - I don't want be apart of that drama.

Narrator's Note (Author's Note): Whatever you want to call it, I don't care, get creative. Just not Huggers creative. Because if that's the case, let's just all agree to never be creative again. Agh, alright. Yes, I am rambling. I'm nervous, okay? Yes text can get nervous, if I can get pissed off I can certainly get nervous. I've been trying to upload this for days, but I keep wussing out. This is my first fanfiction for this website for...you know, legit fanfics. But whatever, go ahead and rip-er-a new one.

* * *

**Prologue I - First Encounter in Domino: " It seems the past is coming back around in more ways than I expected"**

Alternate Titles: I'm the Narrator She's Amy and He's a [4filter], Amy Meets the Resident [4filter], I Start to Tell a Story

* * *

In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, in the city of Domino, the rain was falling fast and hard. Too fast and too hard to even play card games. I know right, you know things are bad when one can't play a children's card game in Yu-Gi-Oh!.

So what does someone do when they can't duel? Well, let's look at Amy here: a girl (a particularly short fanfiction OC) running in the rain. Where she should be placing trap cards and summoning monsters, she was just running. And not for fun mind you - it's not like the girl just went for a jog in the late evening down pour - she was trying to escape the prying eyes of a cannon character that you all know and love.

His name is Bakura, the thief king. Also known as the resident [4filter] of the show. You know him as Ryo Bakura, the sweet cinnamon roll too good for this world, who's possessed by the Spirit of Millennium Ring. And like the entire series Bakura was on a hunt, stocking his prey and trying to capture and grasp his grizzly ridiculously British fingers around any Millennium Items he could find.

Him and Amy had been playing this little game of cat and mouse for way too long now, to the point Amy was drenched with rain and particularly pissed off. All she wanted to do was wrap her pudgy little fingers in a pudgy little fist and use it to punch his little freaking face. This whole event was beginning to become tiresome, her hair and clothes now officially sticking to her body, clinging to every centimeter of skin. She wiped the rain out of her eyes, and tried to remove her side braid from practically gluing itself to her face.

For all the things Amy knew about this world, she didn't know where in particular she was. Domino was a big place and some parts of it were - how would you say it - less savory than the others. It was clear that she had wandered into one of those unsavory parts, littered with broken down houses and abandon buildings that gang members were probably gathered it, beating to death some poor unsuspecting soul over shoes or something.

Exhausted, the OC stopped running, finally accepting her fate. Weighing the options here - Bakura verses thug teenagers, the dark spirit was starting to sound like the better option. Especially because there was a 70% chance that he would leave her alone once he realized he was wrong. And he was so wrong.  
You see, unintelligent and monkey-like readers, with Bakura's aforementioned hunt he was always efficient about sensing ancient magic entering the city. However, while the item Amy possessed on her person enmities this magic, it wasn't exactly a Millennium Item. It was close enough to the real thing, as many cheep copies are, but lacked a few certain benefits of the original. It certainly had no use to Bakura, but since he just wouldn't get the hint, she would have to tell him that herself. So, Amy folded her arms and waited.

"I see you've finally realized that there is no hope of getting away." The face of Bakura emerged from the darkness with a flash of lighting. In lighting his expression up, Amy could see that main antagonist smirk, his canine teeth showing and everything.

To that, Amy could only roll her eyes. She'll do that a lot. Its her number one way of expressing bitter and annoyed sarcasm. "Oh please," she said to emphasize this eye roll, "save it. I got it, you're evil, good gwad, have some originality. Sorry to burst your precious freaking ego, but you're not as frightening as you think you are."

Bakura smile grew wider, the 4Brit's evil voice getting more deep, more menacing. "Is that so?"

Amy paused for a second, thinking that while there was a 70% chance he'd just leave, there was a 30% chance Bakura would just up and send her to the shadow realm. While those odds were up in the air at the moment, one this was certainly clear. This dirk face thought he was _better than her._ Thought he was scary and all powerful because he could kill people. Well that made something click in the back of her mind that fumed Amy's anger. Oh, he really, really deserved to be punched down. She raised her arm, angling it back and oh so ready to release a savory punch and send this cocky little smucker flying.

But, at the last second, something stopped her. It was Ryo's body after all, and it wasn't like he had done anything wrong. But she still had so much angry tension in her muscles, it had to be used up somewhere. So she slipped an item off her wrist and instead of giving Bakura one well deserved one 'across the lip', she threw the object instead. He caught it promptly, like there was nothing too it.

"That's what you've been stalking me around about. Go ahead, take a look you [4filter]. Take a long hard look." she glared, growling under her breath. At this point, the girl didn't even have the patience to substitute her bad potty mouth.

It took a few moments, but after looking down at the object, his face turned to a cringe, another bolt of lighting illuminating the area. "This is merely a fake!"

"_Ding ding ding_ we have a winner. He's not a totally moron after all." Amy spat, "And its not a [4filter] fake, its just not from your set, so back off. I never claimed it was the thing you were looking for. You just assumed that."

I am contractually obligated as your Narrator to describe what Bakura held in his hand. To inform you about the physical details of the object he thrust on the ground in disgust. Well my little genuineness, lets see if we can work through this tough word problem together. (Did you catch my sarcasm. Well you should. Because its [4filter] there as light as [4filter] day. Oooh look! I'm a potty mouth too, aren't I so bad?) Here's a hint, it came off of the wrist of a teenage girl, what the frig do you think it?

No wait, never mind. I just realized I don't care about your mindless little answer. The object was a bracelet, gleaming in the nighttime with it's golden form. It was a little rough here and there, the infamous symbol of the Millennium Items – the eye, staining the front.

But Narrator – you'll say – a Yugi/Yami love story with a new Millennium Item, that's so lame. Ocs with new items are never good or ever make sense.

But Reader – I'll replay – shut up.

Because as Amy picked up the Millennium Bracelet from the ground, she starred hard a Bakura. And him and all his disgust starred back. This wasn't anything but a game between the two of them, in this case with where neither would win. Games. Those had stopped being fun so long ago. Once that was all games were meant for, Duel Monsters, Capsule Monsters, Dungeon Dice Monsters, and all the other games without monsters in its name, having fun wit friends or experiencing a little competitive spirit. But not now. Not anymore. They would be nothing but trouble for a long time.

And perhaps, right then and there, Bakura would have self proclaimed himself the winner of this game by sending Amy to the Shadow Realm to quell his anger. But as he looked at her face, slipping the bracelet back on without breaking eye contact, something clicked. The ancient power that drew him too the item, that face, he all of a sudden understood where this had come from. "I don't believe it." he muttered.

Amy blinked, her considerations on how much she wanted to strangle him now broken. "W-what?"

Unable to hold it back, Bakura let out a laugh. "How didn't I see it before? How could I not recognize that hair, that face, even if it it a bit puffed up, a little scruffy. And that cheep trinket." Amy held her hand over the bracelet protectively. "You so made it to this time too, Amiee. Are you here to assist me, or betray me again for your precious king?"

Amy's eyes flickered in alert. "You know Amiee?" she shifted her body to the side, in a attempt to further shield the item from Bakura's glare. "The spirit of the Millennium Bracelet?"

"Know her?" there were Bakura's canines again, "You don't know the half of it. It seems the past is coming back around in more ways than I expected. This is going to get very interesting." Then Bakura turned around, laughing to himself as he walked away. Amy watched him fade into the fog and rain silently.

As he disappeared, Amy relaxed her body, looking down at the object. She took her hand off it slowly, gently, and it gleamed one more time in the next strike of lightning. And finally, after a moment passed, the last thing Amy did was reach up and flip Bakura the good ol' American Bird.

(Don't get your hopes up too high. I regret to inform you that this part was not kept by 4Kids, and cut off the anime scene that you are picturing in your mind because it is a physical swear. So enjoy this moment while it lasts, before 4Kids edits it out of your little brains.)


	2. Chapter One: First Unexpected Delivery

[On Track]*[Extra/Non Extra]

Disclaimer: _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ ...Kazuki Takahasi...4Kids... Konami... something... bleh.

Narrator's Note: Alright, time to list the bull crap info no one cares about. You might see that the "Extra Notice" says "Extra/Non Extra". This means that only the first half of the chapter is an extra. More of Amy and Bakura. But which Bakura, well, who the frig knows. That being said... woo. We're actually getting into the plot here. It starts with episode two of the Duelist anime with, as titled by 4Kids, "The Gauntlet is Thrown", and the chapter cuts off part way through the episode. So there. Have fun. And I suppose I should mention the rate and review thing, so there, I mentioned it.

On another note : "~~~~~~~~~~" in the middle of the page represents an scene skip.

* * *

**Chapter One - First Unexpected (Yet Expected) Delivery: " It's magic!"**

Alternate Titles: Look Finally the First Fracking Chapter, Everyone is a Dumb [4filter] for Actually Reading This..., Bakura Becomes a Plot Point

* * *

Amy put her feet up on the desk. She was supposed to have cleaning duty today. This wasn't the way to do it, but no one else was here to tell her otherwise. A manga rested in front of her face, the book occasionally being lifted up and she would flip the pages. Today was the day. Pegasus's video would reach the house and steal Grandpa's soul...blah.

She'd seen this episode before. While she didn't want to miss it, the event still wasn't for another hour or so. This is what Japanese teenagers did in their free time, reading picture books, cleaning classrooms, and doing clubs. The track team was finishing up their practice down below. Surely some of those kids must have headed home for the Regional Championships. It is sports? A mind quiz maybe? No! These kids were so eagerly scattering for a card game.

Amy packed up her things in her little indifferent book bag, pulling out her Duel Monsters for the trip home. They didn't exactly fit in her bag squished between the manga and doodle paper. After admiring for a moment how the room was barely clean, she tidied up a bit. In America the classrooms had been all dirt and spit balls, and skid marks on the floors from moving desks. She missed the wads of gross DNA flying past the chairs next to her. She only vaguely recalled the school in Wales, so it was difficult to compare that experience to this Japanese education.

She peaked around the corner of the classroom, looking solely for the other person who was on cleaning duty. She was sure that he would in fact mind her leaving, but she hated to look Bakura in the face and remember that there was an innocent boy behind the thief. Oh, how the Spirit of the Ring pulled at her last strings, his encounter annoyed her to such a point that when she first entered the school and saw Bakura sitting in the back quietly, her first intended greeting was walking over and trying to give the kid a black eye.

Self control, Amy, self control.

She let out a breath. The coast looked clear enough. Amy rounded the corner and started to move as slowly and quietly as possible. When her heel hit the school floor, it couldn't help but echo a bit, but still the girl proceeded without fear. She attempted to readjust her footsteps, but it was a fruitless effort that simply ended up with her tripping and letting her elbow have a pleasant chat with the wall. It wasn't a very loud conversation, the noise of the two masses crashing wasn't any louder than her heel-toe ventures. However, the same could not be said for her vocals.

When she hit it, the bone struck the school and Amy let out a yelp. And of course, a few choice curses in Welsh, English, and Japanese. The exit was a long ways away, but the girl slumped against the wall holding her elbow – going nowhere fast. If Bakura had been anywhere on this floor, he would have heard that.

"Aw crap..." one eye winced closed at the tickling pain. Rubbing the spot was pointless, but made her feel a little better mentally. You humans and your psychological nonsense. She looked left and right of the hallway for Bakura, and saw no sign of the little [4filter] yet. "I've still got a chance." Amy got flat on her feet and made a run for the stairs. "If I'm quick it can beat him to the punch. Won't have to worry about wanting to rip his innocent little face off. I can just avoid him..."

She rounded one, two hallways as she spoke. There was still a few paths before reaching the lower floor transportation. No sooner had the last words left the girls lips did she round the third corner.

And crashed into the scrawny man himself.

Their bodies flung in opposite directions, Bakura landed on his bum – injuring the hearts of some fangirls in the process, and Amy on her back. The only thing she injured was her pride (and hit her head a bit, though it wasn't nearly as damaging as her pride). But that's okay. That will happen a lot.

"[4filter]!" Amy said, her voice louder than need be. "Beth mae'r uffern?!"*

Bakura had let out a small yelp on impact and sat there on the ground rubbing his lower back. "Amy...? That really hurt. Why were you doing running around?"

"Playing friggin speed racer." she groaned, not yet ready to open her eyes or get up. She did however, begin rubbing the back of her head (I don't understand you humans and your need to rub unbloodied injuries – honestly! How does it comfort you?) where it had taken a mild whack. "What else could I possibly be doing?"

It seemed that Bakura didn't quiet know how to respond that, so he referred his answer back to the first half of the statement. "You know you shouldn't be doing that." he said.

The bloody innocence in his voice was absolutely nauseating.

Bakura got to his feet first. "Are you alright? Did you hit your head Amy?"

"Flippin peachy." she responded, finally opening her eyes and sitting up. First, she looked at the 4Brit, clearly frustrated by this turn of events. Then... well... the mess became clear. Cards spread everywhere across the floor, their dark backs scattered over the hall. It looked like a scatter of peculiar tiles were spread all over this one spot. There was more than forty lying around. Actually, it looked to be more like eighty.

Amy's frustration exploded. "What the bloody [4fliter]?! You made me drop everything! They're EVERYWHERE!" She turned on her knees quickly, and started to gather up the cards.

"Ah!" Bakura seemed genuinely shocked, "My cards are all over the ground!" He quickly got on his knees and started to pile them. Seemed quite frantic about it too.

"You're just noticing this now?! Come on Bakura, your helpless but not stupid. What kind of fan fic is this?! And don't just pile them up, my decks in here too! I don't want you ending up with any of my cards."

"R-right! Sorry!" he blurted.

The two sorted the card in silence for just a few moments, Amy stopped once to rub the back of her head again. Her head, her elbow, her cards, all pointing to her escape as anything but successful.

Eventually, Ryo Bakura broke the silence. Amy certainly wasn't going to be the one to do it. "Who were you trying to avoid? Is someone else around?" He held a thick stack of cards, all presumably Amy's cards near him.

Amy flushed. "Of course there are still people around. It's a school." She grabbed the cards quickly, looking into his eyes. They beamed with ignorance. Was it real? Or another ruse? It was so difficult to distinguish the thief from the boy, Dark Bakura was cunning enough to be able to play everyone for fools if he wished.

It was one of the reasons Amy hated him so desperately.

"Well whatever." she turned her head, putting the stack she picked up together with the one he handed to her. "See you later." Amy's tone sounds like an unsatisfied child.

Bakura merely blinked as she got up, and grabbed her still indifferent school bag; Amy squished her cards back in the bag and left all of his scattered on the floor. After a moment, she disappeared from sight and Bakura realized something.

"Wait! What about the classroom?!" he called.

He didn't get his answer.

**.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.**

"Good evin' duel fans and our ten million viewers at home. And welcome to the Duel Monsters Duel Dome, where tonight, the Duel Monster's Regional Championship will be decided." the television blared, going on to describe Rex and Weevil.

"Bug boy verses dinosaur breath, what kind of match is that?" Joey commented. There was a distinct excitement in his tone. "That should'a been me in there!"

Amy rolled her eyes a bit. "Yugi, could you slap your stupid friend for me?" She lay on her stomach, sprawled across the floor, while everyone else relaxed on the surrounding couches. "I can't believe this stuff had ten million viewers."

Joey continued on like the competitor he was. "Are you saying I'm not good enough?"

The whole room was about to see the icy sarcasm that Amy was about to use to ruin everyone time. Téa, being the angel of the group, cut in with some much kinder sounding words. "I know you've been training for weeks, but those guys are in another league. You're just not ready yet." Everyone smiled as she spoke. Everyone but Amy, she stuck her tongue out at the angel for being so happy and nice.

"Sure, rub it in." Joey closed his eyes in what appeared to be confidence, but they could all see the real reason for it. He was closing his eyes to rest them.

Yugi was the one to point it out, saying, "And on top of that, you're so tired you can't keep your eyes open. I think Grandpa's lesson have been a bit too tough for him."

Amy turned her body to look at Yugi. "Well he'd better not fall asleep on that couch, that's where I sleep."

One of those anime sweat drops appeared on Yugi's head. "Oh? You're staying here again tonight? You should really go home Amy..."

She reached over a ways and felt under the couch. It took a little while to find, but she pulled out one of her late night pocky stashes, making seven boxes under the couch now instead of eight. "Mm, but it's so nice here. Except for when some people fall asleep on my spot!" She took one piece of pocky out, and threw the box as she finished her sentence. It hit Joey square on the cheek. He woke up with a start.

"You see it's true what they say," Tristan said.

Amy flinched. "Oh god, don't say it..."

"You snooze you lose!" he finished.

The other rolled over on the the floor. "Ahg, y boen**! The stupid pun, it hurt to listen too."

Téa let out a giggle.

But Joey seemed to have taken it to heart, though, he was looking down now with a sigh. "I must have been nuts to think that I could ever learn this crazy game."

Amy rolled over again. This crazy game huh? It was funny to hear someone say that about Duel Monsters. Everything will go down around this crazy game. Everything has for years. "It'll make sense in the future.." she muttered, seemingly out loud.

"What was that?" Yugi asked.

Amy let out a yelp, "Nothing..! Nothing, nothing!"

"No." Yugi blinked, leaning forward, "We couldn't hear you. You were mumbling... what did you say?"

"I said, why does your grandpa have to run a frigging boot camp? Doesn't it seem kinda inhuman to go beating people over the head for this? It's just a trading card game." She blurted, coming up with a cover story in a matter of seconds.

Then, a new voice came from behind them, suddenly saying, "Inhuman huh?" This caused Amy to squeak in surprise, as Yugi's grandpa had entered the room just in time to hear the insult. "Without the proper training, one can not hone the mind and body, both needed to play Duel Monsters."

"Hone the mind and body? It's a card game old man!" Amy's voice changed to the one of her short temper, "You could convince me of practicing strategy, but there's no real effect it has on the body! What, can't handle standing for a few hours?"

"The stress of playing Duel Monsters provides both a physical and mental strain to the body. Every decision the duelist make's perspires to his or her out come. To succeed they must be able to handle the physical limits." he argued back, as calmly as he could.

Now, Amy got up and got in his face, meeting eye to eye – their heights matched up pretty well. Him having shrunken with age and her just never being tall in the first place. They were practically butting heads. "Strain, what strain? What part of children cards games don't you get? To look at numbers and see who has the highest number. You don't have to be physically fit to put a card on the table, it's not like we're fighting to be Shaman King or something."

When Grandpa was just about to respond, they were cut off by Yugi's scolding voice, piercing through the air between them. "Amy!" it said.

This made the argument pause, and come to an edgy stop. The female sank back down to her spot on the ground, only this time she sat cross legged and flushed; her gaze looked to the side, away from everyone else, her face showing the anger and embarrassment of the situation. Then Yugi's grandpa cleared his throat. "Oh by the way Yugi, this package came for you."

Yugi's questionable look was unmistakable. "A package? What it is gramps..?"

He brought the box over, going about Amy's spot on the floor. "I don't know, it just came in the mail."

"Huh..." Yugi responded, reaching over the couch to take the box. He searched for a label, and when he found one, it left him surprised. "It's from Industrial Illusions!"

Somewhere in the background that none of them were paying attention too, a small sigh came from Amy's mouth. Her lips tightened.

But sure enough, the gang was too excited. "Industrial Illusions, that's the company that makes the Duel Monsters game. Why the heck would they be sending a package to you, Yugi?" Joey spoke up questionably.

The conversation unfolded about Yugi's best guess being Kiba's defeat. That's how everyone knew him, the boy that beat the world champion. They recalled the match, and how Kiba dropped off the face of the earth, you know, because of mental damage that the mind crush had done – of course they didn't know that last tidbit of information. The mind crush, that would be a concept for someone some other day. How ignorant they were to the moral confusion Yami had left Kiba in.

Lots of people said that Kiba's penalty game was the beginning. But no. This package, this package be the will start all the hardship. Pegasus's video. Without this, Yugi never would go to Duelist Kingdom, which would never let him strengthen his bond with Kiba, which never would trigger such a battle for the gods.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Amy knows everything. She's seen it all unveil before her very eyes. All the triggers points are burned into her memory. It occurred to Amy, at that moment as the others watched Rex and Weevil duel, that she could stop this right now. So lost in thought now, Amy had unknowingly changed potions and was now cradling her knees. She could stop the cycle before it began. All of the pain that they would go through, all the tears and sadness, she could stop it.

Loosing Yugi to the Orichalcos, loosing Grandpa, Kiba, and Mokuba to Pegasus, the world being in danger. The destruction present day world faced as Yami and Bakura fought.

None of it would happen. Everything would be okay. They could raise money for Serenity's eyes...somehow. They wouldn't have to use the Duelist Kingdom prize money. There's no real benefit to carrying on as the plot planned. Just because some of the bad things didn't happen, doesn't mean they couldn't still discover the Pharaoh's past and put him to rest. There was no reason to fight through this first arc. There was other ways to do it. And she could still help Amiee...

All she would have to do was get rid of that package. At least the videotape. Then convince the others that it must have been set to the wrong address. Rewrite time. Fudge things a bit.

Without realizing it, Amy had buried her face in her knees thinking hard. To know the future...it can be such an undesirable burden. To have the chance to change everything...

"Amy?" Yugi's voice tore through her veil once again. "Hey, are you okay?"

She lifted her head suddenly, now brought back to the bigger picture of the situation she was in. The others were looking at her.

"You look upset.." Yugi was leaning over the couch side, "everything alright?"

It was taking a while for Amy to digest what was going on. She was frozen on spot, no answer, no wit coming to mind. She couldn't have made her fear any clearer.

Then, there was a saving grace. Something to grab the others attentions. Joey was leaning back, looking smug, "I bet ya` she's sulking about losing the argument earlier."

Her glass frame broke. She had something to go off of. "Shut up! I did not lose Brooklyn Blond, nor would I of! Weevil and Rex are both jokes, I just don't have any interest in watching them play is all. I'd rather watch a Corpse Party walkthrough."

"What do you mean jokes? They're are both pro duelists." The other female started.

While she hadn't been paying attention to the duel, Amy remembered this duel, she knew how it went. "What they _are_ is absolute morons. This is the_ Regional Finals_. There is no way Weevil would be dumb enough to play a 'Basic Insect' without a combination. Yet prehistoric brains up there is completely surprised when he finds out Weevil hasn't made a game costing mistake. _It's like this every fricking time_. The moment 'Basic Insect' came out, Rex should have been completely on guard. Instead, he uses his cocky victory line and calls it good, then is surprised when he lost. "

Yugi backed Tea up saying, "That was a good strategy. They're both incredibly tough opponents in the field of Duel Monsters, between their powerful monster, spell, trap cards and strategy."

"It's just a card game." Amy retorted.

"What do you mean, you play it too!" Joey said.

"Yeah, I play it. Its a _game_. What real life skills can you possibly gain by turning it into a life style? Or using it to solve all your problems? None!"

"Duel Monsters makes you strong!"

"Duel Monsters makes you cut class and get even stupider!"

"Who's the stupid one!?"

"Who the [4filter] do you think?"

"I'll show you who's stupid when I beat ya`!"

"Why would that settle our conflict?"

"Guys!" That call wasn't Joey or Amy, but Yugi's voice as he cut through the tension. "Joey, Amy, stop fighting. You two don't have to agree, Amy you don't have to like Duel Monsters, but at least respect that it's something Joey likes.."

Yugi was on the edge of his seat as he spoke, his small body getting up, hands held out as if to grab the conflict by it's tail. Joey had his deck in hand, waiting to play, while Amy's cards sat to the side, untouched.

"Let's open Yugi's package now." Téa suggested in an attempt to support her ship. The change of pace work, and Amy fell silent. The rest of the group huddled around the package admiring the gloves and stars. The short lass left for the other room for a moment, walking away as if she had no interest in the package. In reality, she hoped to use this chance to hi-...

hide...the...tape...

Frick.

"...it in and check it out." the blond said. Amy spun around at that moment, realizing her hand was quite empty. In her argument, she had forgotten to snatch the tape. Yugi readily agreed with his friend.

Too late Amy yelled to wait, the VCR had already swallowed it into is hungry belly and Yugi already sat down. After a second or two, the man's face appeared on the screen. His flamboyant long hair, brightly maniacal face, and Millennium Eye hidden away.

He needs very little introduction, ladies and gentlemen, Pegasus J. Crawford.

Okay, okay seesh. Don't yell at me you frigger, I'll use his English name. The only reason 4Kids changed his name was because apparently they thought we were all to stupid to get the fact that he was handsomely rich was if "million" wasn't in his name. Like the fact that he owned a freaking castle, and, oh, a freaking island that the castle was on didn't process through the audience's tiny frontal lobe.

Pissy readers, Maximillion Pegasus. Woo.

"Greetings, little Yugi. I am Maximillion Pegasus." he spoke through the screen.

The group seemed confused for just a moment, Joey going as far as to repeat his name and Téa being the broken record she is announced the repetitive knowledge that "we had just seen him on TV", as if it was some kind of foreign concept that the Regional Finals had been live and this tape was per-recorded. God I hate her. Anyways.

Amy started to walk over the VCR. "Hey um..." she tried to say.

"The famous Maximillion Pegasus sends greetings to my Yugi?" Grandpa responded in disbelief. It was clear that no one had heard her. Except Pegasus. He smirked see her futile efforts, amusement gleamed in his visible eye, and his hidden eye flashed through the strands of silver hair. There was no way she would convenience the group to turn it off now, and the antagonist knew that. So did our protagonist.

Then Pegasus continued his lines, "I've heard some terribly interesting things about you, Yugi." Only giving Yugi time to gasp before he continued. "Your impressive defeat of Seto Kiba intrigued me so much I've decided to investigate your amazing dueling skills personally."

Amy's temper flared up, and she marched through the group, pushing Tea aside as she reached for the stop button. "Alright, that enough of that bull! You guys can't actually believe this is re – ouch!" The VCR shocked her hand. Amy pulled it back and held it to her chest, a little afraid of it happening again.

"Oh, and why not?!" Joey burst, "He's got every reason to be impressed. Yugi's the best duelist I know! Maybe Pegasus is on his way right now to meet him!"

Amy argued back instinctively, "Meet him and do what? He's good, but he's not a pro. There's no reason for the creator of Duel Monsters to talk to him. It's a scam. A fake."

This time, to Amy's surprise, it was Tristan who bit back. "Are you sure you you're not just jealous of Yugi, because Pegasus is impressed with him and not you?"

"What?!" she fumed, "I HATE Duel Monsters."

"Then why do you care so much?" Téa chimed in, crossing her arms. "The tape has nothing to do with you. It was addressed to Yugi. Come on, this could be a once and a lifetime opportunity for him."

Amy felt like she was being surrounded. No one would support her. You know what she also hated? Being ganged up on. For those of you who are keeping track of her likes and dislikes, be sure to note that. "You don't even know what he's going to say! Stop assuming it's something good! You guys are all idiots!"

"Everyone be quite." Grandpa said sternly, and the room fell to his demand. "If the creator of Duel Monsters has something to say to my grandson, then it must be important. Let Yugi watch the tape." And that ended the augment. Not knowing what else too do and feeling defeated beyond words, she stood there.

Pegasus seemed to wait with ever growing amusement, even letting out one of his chuckles. He even stopped his speech to watch Amy make a fool of herself. When everyone had their attention back on the television he continued, "Right here, right now, we shall hold a 'special' duel. We'll play with a strict time limit of fifteen minutes, and when the times up; the player with the highest life points will be the winner. Are you ready?"

Yugi stared intensely at the screen, as he had been doing the entire time the group was malfunctioning. His eye only widen to question what the rich man had said.

The others seemed confused and yet amazed. "He can't seriously expect you fight a duel against a video tape?!"

"That's crazy!"

"No..." Pegasus said, his ancient eye opening up to the world.

Amy mustered up her courage and reached for the VCR, knowing this was her last chance.

"It's magic!"

Then Grandpa's body keeled over lifeless.

* * *

*"Beth mae'r uffern?!" roughly translates to "What the hell?!" in Welsh.

**"y boen" roughly translates to "the pain" in Welsh.

I apologize is my use of Welsh is incorrect, I'm pretty rusty in it and self taught.


	3. Chapter Two: First Duel in the Darkness

[On Track]

Disclaimer:

_First we start Kazuki Takahashi and mix with Nihon Ad System, a pinch of dub can do no harm and 4Kids is good to mention. Stir it all up in a great big cup and shake it with a lawsuit, then we'll top it off with Dan Green's voice cause that's the magic potion. Then we try it out to see if we should add Konami. There's really nothing to it. There's really nothing to it. All we do is followwww, this recipe for Yu-Gi-Oh!_

Disclaimer for the Disclaimer: Yes, yes I did parody the 1997 animated Pippi Longstocking movie. Specifically the "Recipe for Life" number.

Narrator's Note: Yes, I know I've gone like a week without uploading! I'm not sorry! I'm never sorry. _Ever. _Anyways, I wen a week trying too edit this freaking chapter and I bet there are still a tone of mistakes. A few grammatical quarrels on my part: I couldn't decided whether or not the phrase "the Pharaoh" should be "the pharaoh" or "the Pharaoh". In the end I decided that it was being used as a title rather then a description so I capitalized the "P". And I know I keep switching between Passive Voice and Aggressive Voice, so for those of you whom are ripping life apart grammatically, heads up that my consistency is poopoo.

That all out of the way, this chapter continues with "The Gauntlet is Thrown". I would say "Enjoy!", but I really don't care enough. I would also say "Rate and Review?" but again, look at all the [4filter] I give.

* * *

**Chapter Two - First Duel in the Darkness: "Scared of what you might say, that you might alter what is to be?"**

Alternate Titles: Enter the Shadow Realm, An Unreachable Memory, Pegasus's Millennium Eye can't Mind its own [4filter] Business

* * *

"Everything's growing dark and cold and the others aren't moving! What have you done to them?! Where have you taken us?!"

It was Yugi's voice. His small vocals rang through the empty dimension, sounding astounded, and surprisingly demanding. The group behind him seemed to move farther away, a gap widened between Yugi and his friends. Yugi couldn't tell whether they were really being pulled farther away or if it was a trick of his mind.

"We are no longer in the world you know..." Pegasus said with a chuckle. "But I will return you and you're little friend...after our game!"

"My friend?" This made Yugi turn towards the man, and then snap his body back around. Was one of the others conscious?

The answer is yes by the way. Of course. And it's the OC so..surprise. But it's not Amy, it's the secondary OC. The shy, timid one. Amiee. The spirit of the Millennium Bracelet. Yes, I know, there's "no such thing as a 'Millennium Bracelet'". We've been through this already with the Spirit of the Ring and the rain thing. There's a perfectly good – and pretty predictable – kinda cliché - explanation. But not right now. I'll save that tid-bit for the scene on the roof later. Now, let's just watch the anime, alright?

A light engulfed where Amy stood, the source emitting from her bracelet. When the light faded, color began to return to Amy's forum. Only she seemed... different. Taller. Her face became a little more lean around the cheek bones. As soon as she became mobile again, the figure retracted her arms to chest, cocooning herself from the world.

"It's... It's the Shadow Realm..." she said sheepishly, looking up at the endless void.

"Amy?" Yugi called. "Is that you? Are you alright?!"

Amiee didn't respond at first, not being used to being called by her alter ego's name. Yugi called again, this time Amiee, realizing the situation, responded to him. "Um...Yes..I'm fine."

Alarmed by the fact that his friend, usually filled with hot air, squeaked instead of shouted, Yugi responded, "Are the others okay?!"

Amiee tightened. "I don't... I don't think so..." She waited to hear Amy's voice respond sarcastically, but nothing came. Her spirit was frozen from this place like the others.

"Hang on."

"No!" she blurted. "Stay there."

"But Amy.."

She shook her head persistently, hoping to show some kind of determination. "You.. have to duel him! We'll be trapped here if you don't. The others will stay in this state."

The boy wasted no time. He nodded at her words, and turned around quickly to face Pegasus. Determination flare from the boy. "Then it's time to duel!"

And in a second, Yugi had changed. His spirit was pulled back and replaced with a new one. The two switched in that lovely animation sequence that Amiee could not see, but me and you can. The one where Dan Green screams "Yu-Gi-Oh" and becomes one of them most attractive things many 1990's children saw in their childhood. It was like a magical girl transformation, only with an attractive male instead of a blond Mary Moon Sue.

An array of confidence now flared, the Pharaoh's smug smile declaring the start of the game, using the voice talents of Dan Green himself.

"Start the clock and make your move Pegasus!"

This didn't frighten Pegasus like it had those poor chaps in season 0. "Certainly...let's begin!"

And the time on the digital clock began to tick down.

"Nervous, Yugi-boy?" Pegasus said while placing a card on the table. "You should be. You've never face a duelist like me before..."

Yami picked up his card, starting his turn, and continued the conversation. It was clear that neither side had any fear of the other. The Pharaoh seemed as if he hardly noticed the pressure of the Shadow Realm, as if it was second nature to him. It was like home here.

The conversion continued on. "...but I will beat you to save my friends..." Dan Gr- er – Yami Yugi stated confidently, choosing a card from his hand to play

The aura around the area warped a little more. Behind his hair, Pegasus had activated his eye, staring into Yami's mind. "You won't save anyone with that dragon card!"

Yami's eyes widened. "How?!"

"I told you" Pegasus grinned again, "you've never faced anyone like me before. I know every move you'll make before you can even make it."

"Yugi." Amiee called softly from afar.

Yami turned his body, cringing a little. It was easy to see he was frustrated by Pegasus's accurate prediction.

"Don't let him get to you, all he can do is anticipate. Just duel."

Now Pegasus frowned, "Now why would you say that and spoil everything? You're too harsh on me, my dear." He held a card up, "I suppose that I'll just play this then."

A light beamed from the television, engulfing Yami Yugi, then narrowing down to his card. "This 'Dragon Capture Jar' will draw the 'Koumori Dragon' from your card and imprison the beast!" The light faded, and Koumori appeared for just a moment, like the holograms on the television program had done before, then disappeared.

Pegasus laid down his 'Dragon Piper', then directed his attention to Amiee. "Since you love to spoil all my fun, I'm sure that you are going to tell him. About where we are, about what we do?" The 'Dragon Piper' appeared on the field. "About what we are wearing?"

"What's he talking about?" Yami asked, looking back at Amiee once again.

Amiee didn't say anything, having both pairs of eyes on her suddenly made her freeze up. Especially nerve-racking was the Pharaoh's confused and frustrated stare piercing her. Her heart rate began to pick up, and her face began to flush. Amiee's nerves had her frozen.

This made Pegasus laugh, his eye glowing again. "Don't stare so hard Yugi-boy, you're scaring her. Since she seems incapable, I'll have to explain it for her." Yami turned back to Pegasus. "This is the Shadow Realm, and everything here is very much real, and alive. Like this – 'Dragon Piper', play your Flute of Resurrection and release 'Koumori Dragon' to me!"

The sound of the Piper's song played as Pegasus spoke, and with a cry, Koumori faded back on the field. Now that the attention was off her, Amiee's shoulders relaxed.

Yami was forced instantly onto the offensive. "I have to counter attack!" He threw his Silver Fang monster card on the field, and in moments it was engulfed in the 'Koumori Dragon's flame. However, It wasn't just 'Sliver Fang' that felt it, Yami himself could feel the heat that surrounded him. His life points also took a **500 point** burn.

**Pegasus: 2000 lp**

**Yugi: 1500 lp**

The flame died down, and Pegasus reached for another card. "Very real indeed."

"Yugi!" Amiee squeaked in a panic, taking a few steps forward.

He didn't answer her call of concern, but instead grunted and spoke to the other duelist. "What was that?!"

Pegasus laughed again, "Magic Yugi-boy. Dangerous magic."

The expression on Yami's face turned stale. He listened to the man's laughter with an unchanged scowl.

"This is quite fun, watching you scowl and sneer. What about you?" the flamboyant man gestured again to Amiee, "Are you going to scowl at me too? Or are you too frightened? Scared of me? Scared of what you might say, that you might alter what is too be?"

Pegasus's life point count appeared untouched on the screen. Time was ticking down, and Pegasus continued to waste it. "Your friend doesn't seem to share the same feelings. I saw her reach for the tape. She doesn't seem to understand the gravity of this time stream. But you know better then that. You know you can't distort the time stream too much, or else risk the lives of everyone you care about."

Amiee flinched at his words.

"Pegasus." Yami's harsh, demanding tone cut in. "Leave Amy alone. Your fight is with me."

"Well aren't you the knight in shinning armor. I'm so glade I came to Japan. It's just so entertaining" Pegasus shrugged, laying a card face down. "Fine then. The time is ticking after all, might I suggest we get back to our duel?"

Amiee watched her friend stare at his hand for a moment, and lift a card from the rest. From a distance, she couldn't see what it was, but whatever it was, it made Yami hesitate. The other man only smirked (if you want to call him a man, personally I'm not sure it's the correct adjective), and moved his hand up. He held his hair out of his face, and for a moment, Amiee and Yami could see it.

The Millennium Eye.

After that, Yami slid the card back in with the others. Amiee couldn't see his face, but since I'm the narrator, I could – and from a handsome profile angle too. Yami smirked, a sly idea coming to mind.

I'm really not in the mood to narrate to you about his thought process. Something about Pegasus being able to see his move coming and getting an idea or something. I'm not your nanny, just your narrator. If you want to know so bad, look it up yourself.

"Hurry up now, Yugi-boy. Time is running out – for you and your friends."

Then, Yami did something that was surprising. Amiee saw, from his back, his arm reach to his deck. But rather than it move up to where his hand would be, Yami placed it straight on the field.

Pegasus seemed too arrogant to notice. "I already know you plan to play the 'Zombie Warrior'..."

"You're wrong." The voice was Amiee's. It cut across the Shadow Realm.

"Mm?" Pegasus's eyes narrowed.

"She's right Pegasus," Yami said, placing his hand on the card. "I figured out your little game, you may be able to see the cards in my hand, but you can't see the cards I pull from the deck."

Yami flipped the card over with confidence, completely assured that his deck had provided him with the right card. "My next card is... the 'Dark Magician'!"

This move failed to shake Pegasus's arrogant mannerism. "Ooooh!" the man's face and body language flirted with the line of sarcasm, "The big, scary 'Dark Magician'!"

Unfazed by this, Yami continued, "Mock me all you like, Pegasus! But my magician will destroy that dragon!"

"Go ahead if you think it will help."

Neither side was showing any doubts. Yami was positive that Pegasus was bluffing, and the latter didn't let on any hint that he might have lost control of this duel. The clock struck six minutes.

"It'll do more then help, Pegasus. It'll bring you closer to defeat and bring me closer to saving my friends!"

Pegasus took a moment to look past Yami, and took in Amiee's reaction. She was looking to the side, her face riddled with guilt. The he smiled and closed his eyes, "If it can do all that, by all means play it!"

So Yami called his 'Dark Magician' from the card, and it entered with an intense spin of powerful wind, staff held up in had. The monster pointed that staff down to Pegasus's card, completely ready for the offensive. With an order from Yami, the 'Dark Magician' shifted his body to the left and held out his hand instead of his staff (which, if he attacks with his hand anyways, I fail to see what he has a staff in the first place, but hey, that's just me being bitter). And then Pegasus's monster was shattered into a million pieces.

**Pegasus: 1200 lp**

**Yugi: 1500 lp**

So, I know I'm getting off track and everything, but can I just point out something that bugs me. Am I the only one who noticed that the _Dark Magic Attack_ looks really freaking similar to a mind crush? You know, without the Eye of Anubis symbol and crap like that. The monsters are real here that the dragon just got freaking mind crushed and into a million, billion pieces _and_ his brain was mashed. That's cold 'Dark Magician'. On the up note, it makes him and the Pharaoh a perfect match.

Anyways, back to this fun little duel, my personal thought interrupted Pegasus's laugh. Now he's saying that Yami played into his hands again. And now Yami looks shocked, and now... aw hell, I'll just go back to telling it the right way.

"By playing that one card you have ensured my victory!" the silver haired man boasted.

The camera transitioned to Yami, who objected with stern determination (there's a lot of that going around these days isn't there. Determination I mean.), "No."

"We'll see, Yugi." Pegasus said. Amiee mouthed the words as he spoke them. "Oh! A very rare card!"

Turning the card around, it was revealed to be the three headed 'Illusionist Faceless Mage', a spellcaster who _manipulates enemy attacks with the power of illusion. _Two of it's three heads were disturbingly bland, while they had facial features, those facial features were lifeless. The middle head was filled with life, but was bare of any features save a mouth that smiled as if it were eager to add to it's collection of faces.

Yami's poker face momentarily broke to show shock. "I've never seen that card before!" A milliseconds after speaking, his expression reverted back to the state it was before. "But my 'Dark Magician' is one of the strongest magic cards in the game." I'm pretty sure he meant to say monster, but you know, yahoo to the dub and all that.

Amiee clasped her hands together. _'You know there's more to a monster card the just it's physical strength.' _she thought, but didn't dare say out loud.

As if reading her thoughts, which is a funny phrase considering the circumstances, Pegasus put another card down on the field. "But how will he fare once I combine my 'Faceless Mage' with the with the equally rare 'Eye of Illusion'?"

As he spoke, the mage reached out the card, cackling a high pitched noise from it's bare head. Amiee flinched at the sound of it. In the unconscious portion of her mind, that laugh began to trigger a memory. Her face dropped to blank stare, and paled a little. It wasn't a casual memory, but a terribly frightening one.

A boy and girl. A third friend.

Her preconscious re-suppressed the memory back to her unconscious mind, cutting off the visual before it could get any further. Amiee's face contorted with fear. Something about the memory seemed so familiar, so important, yet it had stopped before she could place place why. There was nagging feeling, her body calling for her to remember the rest to complete it's reaction, and her mind completely denying her body of it's request. And oh, her body was reacting. Amiee's hands lifted themselves up to her neck and wrapped all ten fingers around her throat. From there, her muscles stiffened up, unable to move, save for her trembling.

Yet, Amiee had no idea why she was so frightened.

Despite how for Amiee, this event felt like it went on forever, for the two duelist the clock had only gone down a few seconds. Yami quickly called out his 'Dark Magician' to attack as soon as the 'Faceless Mage' emerged. The 'Faceless Mage' defended from it, an eye coming up to shield it from damage. Smoke spread around the field, and piercing through it was the light of Pegasus's Millennium Eye. The item was attracted to the vision, and of it's own accord, looked into Amiee's mind. Pegasus cried out surprise as he witnessed the same brief visions as she did. And then, the eye went deeper, into her unconscious. The rich man saw more than even Amiee herself did.

When the smoke cleared, Yami yelled out for the 'Dark Magician'. The field still housed both monsters._ 'My attack had no effect at all. His 'Faceless Mage' should have been destroyed!' _Yami thought. He shifted his gaze around the field, and caught a glimpse of Pegasus's face, and Yami's eyes narrowed._ 'Why does he looked so shocked? Isn't think what he wanted to happen?' _

The clock on the VCR read five minutes.

Then Yami gasped, as it occurred to him that Pegasus wasn't looking at the field, but past it. Past him. To his friend. So Yami spun around.

"Amy?!"

Amiee was still frozen, fingers held tightly around her neck, her eyes widened with emotion, breath trembling in sync with her body. She didn't hear the Pharaoh's call, too wrapped up in her own head to comprehend anything that was going on outside her body. Another image leaked through her consciousness, this time an effect of the Millennium Eye's prying.

The three young Egyptian children were standing together. Two them stood forward, and the third hid behind the others. Half of each child's body was hidden in shadows. She couldn't identify them at all.

Four minutes were left on the tape.

"Amy!" he yelled again, still lacking any kind of response.

Within moments, the pharaoh, without even putting his hand down, rushed in front of Amiee. He put his hands on her shoulders, the cards pressing against her. "Amy? What wrong?"

Three minutes now.

On the other side of the screen, Pegasus's eye stopped glowing, his hair that had been separated fell back into place. He didn't smile, or look smug, all of that had been drained out of his face. He held his hand up to side of his head. The violent sudden bust from the item had drained him. Still, Pegasus stood tall, frowning, but standing tall none the less. It seemed he was trying to process what he had seen.

After calling Amy's name several more time, Yami turned to Pegasus, yelling in the enraged, protective tone of Dan Green. "Pegasus! What have you done to her?"

Two minutes.

"Tell me!"

"I haven't done anything. This is your friends doing all on her own."

Yami turned back to her. His grip on her shoulder tightened. He called Amy's name again, only this time, physically shaking her shoulders. "Amy!"

Amiee's hands began to loosen. Her eyes went wider for just second, then she dropped her hands from her neck and slumped down on the ground. Now, she was breathing in deep breaths, each breath calmer than the last.

One.

Yami also keeled down, keeping her at eye level.

_'Pharaoh...?'_ Small drops of tears began forming in the corners of her eyes. While she thought the word pharaoh, the name that actually escaped her voice, broken and high pitched was "Yugi...?"

Yami nodded, loosing his grip on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

She felt the tears sting and she tried to keep then from falling as she nodded. What Amiee wanted to do was bury her her face in his chest, but then she remember where she was and gasped. From over his should, she could see the counter on the video. It read thirty seconds.

And Yami's life points were still higher. "You have to finish the duel!" Amiee yelled, frantic removing his hands from her arms. "You've only got thirty seconds left!"

At this rate, the clock would run out of time and Yami would win, altering the course of history. While that was what Amy wanted, it wasn't what Amiee wanted. Yugi needed to lose.

Yami nodded, quickly and angrily turned back to the duel, and reached his deck, immediately drawing from it. "Pegasus! I'm tiered of your games. I will defeat you!"

Pegasus said nothing. He had lost his amusement with this duel, too tired, too drained.

This didn't bother the other duelist, as he continued on strong. "I summon my 'Celtic Guardian', who's immune from your mage's gaze, to cut it down to size."

"You underestimate my 'Eye of Illusions'." Pegasus said, "_Dark Magic Attack._"

'Celtic Guardian' was destroy, the black void of an attack hitting him.

Yami's life point drained fast. As did the clock.

**Pegasus: 1200 lp**

**Yugi: 400 lp**

The timer hit zero.

Yami's eyes widened in frustration and realization. "No!"

"I'm afraid our time together is up. It's too bad, I had higher hopes for you." Pegasus's face took up the screen completely. "I have taken a measure of your talents this day, Yugi Muto. And when we next duel we shall play for far higher stakes." He looked at Yami, then and Amiee.

A yellow light appeared from the television, flying upwards, then merging with Yugi's grandpa. That was when the old man's soul lift from his body and was absorbed into the television. "I'll be keeping this as an incentive Yugi-boy. We will see each other again." Then Pegasus's voice faded out, and Grandpa appeared on the screen, a look of distress as he cried out for his grandson.

Yugi's spirit took control, clutching television, recognizing his grandfather's face. "Grandpa!"

The screen faded to static.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpaaa!"


	4. Chapter Three: The Empty Shell

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: Somewhere there is a disclaimer that talks about the Yu-Gi-Oh! copyrights. It floats throughout the spacetime, but was lost in the rewritten universe that is Bonds Beyond Time. So, instead you just got this little blurb.

Narrator's Note: I am not... happy... about the comments, favs, and follows. I'm completely not ecstatic... ecstatic is... is for stupid text who confuse their binary for human emotions. I'm never happy. Ever. Happy isn't in my programming, I don't do happy. I - aggggh [4filter] [4filter] [4filter]. Maybe I'm a little happy. Just a tiny bit. Just..a...I...I don't...do...happy...ever...GAH. ./.

* * *

**Chapter Three - First Empty Shell: "Anything stolen can be retrieved"**

Soulless, Soul Eater can't Munch a Soul if its Trapped, Amiee Wishes Amy Would Keep Her Big Yapper Shut, I Read to You an All 'Extra' Chapter Because I [4filtetr]

* * *

"Grandpa!"

Everyone else instantly held their looks of surprise, now not from the crazy words that Pegasus had said about magic, but at the fact that Yugi was acting crazy. Even Amy was shocked, when time had continued outside the Shadow Realm, Amiee had switch back instantly, so smoothly that Amy had no idea that the other had even taken over during the duel. Even Amy felt like there had been some sort of time skip, something she had wildly missed.

"Grandpa!"

It took a moment for the awkward adjustment to kick in, but when it did she was ready - the only one in the room who seemed to have any control of themselves. Yugi was still shaking the television and yelling uncontrollably. The others were still confused by the sight.

"Grandpaaaa!"

Amy quickly got up and sat next to Yugi, twisting his upper body slightly to face her. "Yugi stop!" She put a hand on each side of his face, and looked into his eyes. They were mad with worry and disbelief. "Listen to me, shaking the T.V. won't help anything. He's not there anymore."

"I have to get him back!"

"You will, but not that way!"

Yugi let go of the television, and Amy let go of him. He turned back to the electronic device, but didn't look at it. He stared at the floor instead.

Behind them, the others had finally come to grips, looking over at where Grandpa Muto was laying, hollow and lifeless. Joey was the first of the three to react. "Gramps!" he reached over and turned the old man's body around so he was facing the ceiling.

"Oh no!" Téa responded, getting on her hands and knees, facing his body.

Joey put his head down on Solomon Muto's chest, "I hear a heartbeat, but he's completely unresponsive! He's breathing but he's not moving...it's like his body's an empty shell!"

Now cue Tristan. "What happened to him?!"

And thus all the gang was on the same page again.

"Guys," Amy turned, "shut up for a second! Gwads!" she scowled. "You're not helping. Tristan call 119. Tell them we need an ambulance. Joey, you go get Yugi's mom. Tell her something's happen to Grandpa."

"Right. Come on." The two left for the other room.

Téa responded as the others left. Her voice cracked with distress. "What's wrong with him?"

"..." Amy took a deep breath. Yugi was going to hear her answer, he needed something to mull over the shock. "His body's is pretty much in a coma."

"What? How?! He was fine a few minutes ago!"

Amy got up slowly. "Téa, I need you to listen to me carefully, and believe what I say. Grandpa's heart is still functioning, his brain is still functioning, what's missing is his soul."

She also got up. "His soul?"

"A soul is considered by some to be the very immaterial essence of life. The sense of 'I' that controls who you are. Without it, people are empty functionless vessels."

"But how could he lose his soul?"

She hesitated. "...It was stolen." Amy paused, then added, "But anything stolen can be retrieved." She glanced back at Yugi, still sitting there. Amy got very close to Téa, close enough to whisper, "Two more things. Do not tell Mrs. Muto about the soul thing. That's for the group only. Second, stay here with Yugi. You're not so dumb that I should have to spell out why."

Téa, being the perfect freaking friend she is, didn't even for a second take that last portion as an insult. Amy knew that she would have questions later, but was to concerned about her friend to ask them right now. Amy left the room silently after that. She could hear Téa behind her comforting Yugi. The female made her way outside the room and closed the door, waiting for the boys to come back. She ran her hand through the back of her hair and slumped down to the ground.

This was more distressing then she had first thought it would be. Amy couldn't help but wonder how Yugi was doing, despite leaving only moments ago. She felt like she was doing this all wrong. A nagging thought said she should be in there, saying comforting words to Yugi herself, trying to tell him everything would be all right. But would that be considered a spoiler? She didn't want to break the space-time continuum or anything. Aside from that, Amy quickly reasoned three other things. Firstly, she knew Téa was better at this then she was, because Amy knew everything. Secondly, that she was a better choice anyways, Téa was the closest thing to a childhood friend that Yugi had. She would be much better comfort than a person he practically just met. And third, Amy wasn't here to make friends anyways, she was only here to tag along. It would be counter productive to become attached to anyone.

Still, a part of her, somewhere in the back of her head screamed she was wrong. It made the girl wish so badly that she just had the courage to remove that video tape. She rubbed her neck, a stinging sensation occurring a few places on it, and assumed the pain must have been from the guilt coming around.

Tristan came back first, he hurried to Amy saying, "They're on their way." Amy shot up quick, scrambling off of the floor. Then with a nod, she invited him to stand with her while they waited for Joey, in an informal manner of course. "You should probably wait to go in."

"What, you're nuts if you think I'm staying out here. Yugi needs us right now!" he protested, putting his hand on the doorknob.

"Will you quit it. It's not like I left him alone in there you stupid dirk! Téa's with him, chill the frick out!" she growled back.

"You're not going to keep me away from my friend -" Tristan started, only to be interrupted by a distressed cry coming their way. Yugi's mother ran past the two of them, opening the door and rushing into the room. Amy reached over and closed the door behind her.

She looked up at Tristan, the height difference between them being largely significant. Joey soon followed Yugi's mom. Tristan looked at him. "The ambulance should be here any minute now."

Joey nodded, "How's Yug doing? Is Gramps okay?"

"No." Amy muttered, rubbing her neck again.

"Then why aren't we in there?!"

"Because," she said, "Téa will be out in a second."

Sure enough, a heavyhearted Téa opened the door and looked at the group. "Is it here yet?! What's taking it so long?!"

Rather then answer her question, Amy choose to ignore it all together. "Téa, Joey and I are going to head up to the hospital on foot. You two stay here. Give me a ring when the ambulance gets here."

The taller female closed the door, angry now. "What?! You can't seriously be thinking of leaving him!"

"Oh for gwads sake! What were you all cut from the same tree?! We're just getting a head start, four guests wont fit in an ambulance. Or in any car!"

Joey refused as well, declaring that he wouldn't leave his pal at a time like this. Then, to Amy's surprise, Tristan agreed with her. He looked at Joey. "She right man, you guys go, we'll catch up." While she had no idea what caused his change of heart, she was grateful.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

It was dark out as the two of them walked to the hospital in Domino City. There was no doubt in her mind that was where Solomon would be taken too. It was going to be a long night for Yugi, and the lot of them should be there for at least a little bit. The two walked in silence for a few minutes, the streets being surprisingly quiet. It was so quiet that Amy had time to think. She had time to think about a lot of things. About Joey's sister, about having to go to a hospital, about the fact that she didn't know where to go from here, she hadn't seen this part. The next thing that she had seen was Yugi, frustratedly trying to figure out how this all happened while standing on the school roof tomorrow. But tomorrow was so far away.

"Soooo," Joey had his hands his pockets as he walked, "you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Oh," she mumbled back, "how do you figure that?"

He just kind of glanced at her from the side. "Why else would you have me come along with you. You hate me!"

Amy looked up for a minute, then nodded her head slowly, seemingly agreeing with what he was saying. "Yeah... yeah I pretty much do. Look who's an observant little blond monkey."

Responding to that, Joey made his classic, 4Kids, Brooklyn Rage noise. You know, the one where Wayne Grayson makes an angry "Nyeh" noise, with all of the sounds in the word kind of mushed together. Something that was parodied nicely in the abridged to a full fledged "Nyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeh".

Because that's how the Non-Stop Nyeh Cat rolls. "Watch it, shrimp."

"You watch it, you dumb dueling dog!" Then, surprisingly, Amy sighed, turning around and walking backwards so she was facing the blond secondary canon protagonist. "Alright, you were right. There was a couple of things I wanted to mention."

"Well shoot then."

"So, I hear you've been training for the tournament for the last month. The one that ended earlier tonight. I saw the poster up in Kame Game Shop."

"Awhe yea`! And if I had more time, I woulda` won it too!" he held he hand up too his chest confidently.

Amy rolled her eyes again. The blond was just oozing with overconfidence, another thing she was particularly disdainful about. "Psht, I could have dueled circles around you."

"Oh yeah?" he started, "I've never even seen you duel. I bet you're embarrassed because of how bad of a duelist you are, that's why you never duel."

She waved him off, "If it makes you feel any better, think whatever you like. I'm not completely against the thought of being bad. I'm not a terrible duelist, but I'm not a great one too. Anyone one of use could have lost to Pegasus like that."

This made Joey stop walking. Amy also stopped, waiting for him to say something. She had successfully transitioned into her next subject without having to start it out awkwardly. "Yugi lost?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but yeah. Yugi lost. He dueled Pegasus through the tape... it's hard to explain. What happened to Yugi's grandpa is... Pegasus took his soul as his prize for winning."

Joey shook his head, "That sounds absolutely nuts. Gramps doesn't have a soul?"

"That about covers it."

Joey looked down at his hand. "Are you sure?"

This struck a chord on Amy's patience. It shouldn't because what she was saying didn't sound realistic at all. It would be normal for anyone to question her – and he could be doing so much worse than question her. He could be accusing her of making fun of the situation. Still, Amy knew she was 100% right, so even the slightest questionable response got on her nerves. "Yes, of course I'm sure! You think I would be spitting this crap out on the way to the hospital if I wasn't?!" she leaned forward to look at him as she spoke. Standing side by side and being much shorter made it difficult to make eye contact.

"I checked his heartbeat. His breathing. They were both there, only it was like he was empty...he really lost his soul..." Joey was opening his hand up a closing it as he spoke, as if he was thinking about how he turned Grandpa's limp lifeless body over.

"For gwads sake, yes! He did!"

Then, Joey's hand clenched to a fist, and he brought it parallel to his shoulders. "That lousy snake! We'll get him back for what he did to our buddy!"

It seemed that he had finally accepted the reality she was handing him. Amy turned forward again and started to walk. She didn't wait for Joey, knowing that when he's done having his moment, he would catch up. Amy knew that spitting out all this nonsense sounded crazy, but someone was going to have to explain to everyone the situation. Now that the whole thing was in motion, she had no choice but to open the (again metaphorical) box of dominoes and set them up.

Joey hurried to catch up, and soon they walking at the same pace again. And oh boy, it looked like he was ready to continue the conversation! Yay! I just love awkward conversation!

….Yes, shut up, I am being sarcastic.

"So what happens now? How do we help Yug out?"

Amy snorted at his question. "Why are you asking me? Who said I had all the answers? I don't know what's going to happen." That was a lie. "I don't know what to do!" That was another lie. "I'm not a soothsayer, I can't seen the freaking future." That was only half a lie, she only _saw_ the future once, she technically couldn't _see_ it at random or anytime she wished.

After her rant, Amy resorted to another sigh. "But..."

"But?"

"All I can think of is the video tape. All this trouble came because of a tape. To be safe, if you or any of the others get any video tapes in the next few days, you shouldn't watch them unless everyone is together."

Amy saw, from the corner of her eye, Amiee's spirit form begin to hover around her, coming out from her usual safe zone inside their minds. She looked Amy questionably, unsure of her companion's motives, but didn't say anything. Amiee had a bad habit of not saying what was on her mind. They would have to have a talk later.

"You think he'll be coming after us next?"

_'No. Of freaking course not.' _Amy thought bitterly, but decided it was better not to say that. As I said, Amiee had a bad habit of thinking too much about what she said, so she never said what she wanted to. On the other hand, Amy had a bad habit of not thinking before speaking. It was an issue she was trying to learn to control. So, in response to his question Amy simply shrugged.

"And actually," Amy began to blush. "I had favor to ask you." She was always embarrassed when asking favors. Hated favors. They were just trouble waiting to happen.

Joey could only blink to response, "What?! Me? You want a favor from me?"

She blushed even harder. "Look, it's not that big of a deal! I just..." she looked away, "I need you to cover for me. At the hospital. I'm trying to keep on the down low, so I wondering, should the need arise... if we asked out names and crap, can you tell them I'm your sister?"

"You want me to do what?! What about your school ID?"

"I'm not asking you if you have a real sister for me to pretend to be, just make something up! Gwads! Like I said, I'm trying to keep a low profile, I figure an alias wouldn't hurt any!" she sneered. The two were walking by a business now. It was still open, so it's lights were brightly illuminating the road.

"You don't look anything like me!"

Amy rolled her eyes and forced herself to keep from retaliating. It would only go on forever if they kept this up. Once again, she started ahead him, turning around to walk backwards so they were looking at each other. A breeze blew past them, blowing Amy's hair out from around her neck. Meanwhile she was pointing her hand at her face. Specifically, pointing to her eyebrows, "Look. My natural color is dirty blond." Next, she pointed to her eyes; "And brown eyes. On top of that my blood type is B."

"What?!" Joey shouted, jumping back, "You freak! What are you a clone of me?!"

She appeared to be cross now, standing still. "Not on your life! You aren't the only dirty blond in the world ya' know! It's a happy flippin coincidence, that's all! Look..."

Amy took out a hairpiece out of the pocket of her uniform. It was was a clip with a bow and a long blond strand attached too it. From the other pocket she took out glasses. They had dark blue, round frames. Amy clipped her hair up quickly, leaving small strands of brown hanging loose of the side of her face, and slipped the glasses on. Lastly, she untied her side braid. "I look totally younger, and like weebo."

Joey got closer and leaned down to inspect the quick makeover, "I dunno, you still look like the same shrimp to me..."

Now that he was closer, and with the light of the store window, Joey spotted the markings around Amy's neck. Ten small, light bruises. Joey raised an eyebrow. "Hm? What did you do to your neck?"

Her face distorted with disgust, assuming he was trying to avoid the question. "What? Nothing!

Joey shrugged and pulled back, "Whatever you say." With that, he continued walking. She blinked, unable to comprehend how he rude she thought his response was. Meanwhile, her phone went off. She pulled out her flip phone and opened, a text from Téa popping up.

"Well it's about time they got there." Amy muttered. She closed her phone and went to put it back in her pocket. That was when she caught her reflection in the window of the store. The temptation was too great, so Amy moved her head slightly to the left to check Joey's claim.

_'What the heck?' _There were really bruises there, small, light bruises.

Amy looked up to say something, and realized Joey was far ahead of her.

"Hey! Wait up!" she yelled, starting to run after him, "You can't leave without your little sister!"

.~~~~~~~~~~.

A half hour later, Amy was standing outside the hospital. Naturally, Grandpa had been emitted. Her and Joey had gotten there after the ambulance. Tristan and Téa were already in the waiting room with Yugi. All three of them were silent. By the look on Tea's face, Amy could guess that she thinking about the whole soul thing. Tristan had his own thought, which Amy couldn't even begin to guess what they were. Yugi himself seemed to have his head back on straight, he was quiet, but twiddling his thumbs together, which, at least he was doing _something_.

They didn't know what they were waiting for. For the doctors to not call Grandpa dead? For them to come out an tell everyone they have never seen anything quite like this, or the muddle up closest possible medical call they could make? No one knew for sure, but they waited none the less.

When the desk secretary came over to ask who they were here to see, Joey stated that they were family friends of the Mutos. When she turned her attention to Amy, Joey cut in and said they were sibling. This made Amy smile – just a small smile – hardly able to believe that he went through with it, but pleased none the less.

Now that I've finished that mini sum up flashback, I can get back to what I was talking about. After a while of waiting, Amy went to walk around the outside and get some fresh air. At the time, she only intended on going out for a little while, but there was a temptation not to go back inside that she just couldn't refuse.

It was also the perfect time for Amy and Amiee to talk. Even by now, Amy wasn't quite sure how to try to get contact with Amiee on demand. She had tried screaming her name in Amiee's name in her... their... whichever pronoun was correct... head. It didn't always seem to get her attention. Sometimes Amy tapped on the Eye of Anubis in the center of bracelet. Mostly though, Amy had to wait for Amiee to decide on her own accord to come out in her super special spiritual form that only me, you, and Amy could see.

_'Why did you tell Joey about the video tape?'_

_'Well why not?'_

_'He's suppose to watch it on his own.'_

Amy's grunt, sounding exceedingly frustrated. _'I'm sure in some timeline, somewhere, they watch it together as a group and it doesn't destroy the time stream.'_

_'You can't be sure of that...'_

_'Look, I'm here, okay. That changes somethings, but not everything. Like the Doctor says, it's fixed points in time that are vital, anything else is free reign. I know what points matter and what don't. Yugi's going to share his star chip and prize money anyway.'_

_'...Amy... why do you do this? Why do you go out of your way to try to disrupt the timestream?' _

"Well, maybe I want to be there when Joey finds out his sister's almost blind! Maybe I want the others to be there! Maybe I want to get it out of the way so I don't have to put up with his sulking at Duelist Kingdom! Maybe I just need control of one [4filter] little thing!"

Almost immediately, Amy jumped cupped her hands over her mouth. She had been so mad, she said that last part out loud. Very loud. Frantically looking left and right for some other life forms that had ears, she saw none and was in the clear.

_'But it's not just small things, Amy. What about earlier?'_

_'Oh, you mean the darn video tape. If I just hadn't gotten so gun shy, none of this would have happened. I'm so pissed about that.'_

_'Duelist Kingdom needs to happen.'_

_'No it doesn't! None of this does! As long as we kept Yugi on the down low, and kept anyone from taking over the world, everything would have been fine. They would have had normal lives. Ishizue would have found him eventually, and shown them how to return him to rest. Those are the only fixed points, world stays normal, [name censor] goes home.'_

Amiee didn't respond. Amy could feel her emotion – strong, raw disagreement. Yet, she wasn't using her words to express that disagreement. As always.

A voice calling her name pulled Amy out of the conversation and back into the real world. Yugi was slowly maneuvering his way to the spot. Between the distance and the dark, she could barely see his face. What gave his location away was the white shirt beneath his uniform. Eventually, coming into the light, the two sat down together. It was awkward at first.

"You okay?" she asked finally, getting out the question that had bothering her all afternoon.

The short male looked over. "That's actually what wanted to ask you."

This made the short female blink, pausing for a moment, her face questing of what he meant. "I'm fine. I'm not the one all the crap is happening too."

She momentarily decided that saying that probably was a bad idea. But, you know, she could mentally smack herself all she wanted, and it won't change the fact that she said it. However, on the flip side, Yugi let the mistake slide. Instead, he explained himself, "You were pretty upset during the duel with Pegasus.."

"The duel with... wha?"

A worried look crossed Yugi's face, "Don't you remember? You were there with me in the Shadow Realm. I'm not sure why, but you were the only other one who wasn't effected by it. With everything that has happened, I hadn't got the chance to see how you were..."

"Oh, that, right." Amy started. She still had no idea what Yugi was talking, but looking at his face, felt sympathy for his concern. He was really trying to be nice, acting like he cared for her, despite the fact that they had only know each other for such a short amount of time. She didn't have the heart to be honest, it would only worry the male more. Playing along was the only option. "No, I'm good. Everything's a bit hazy actually."

Yugi looked briefly at her neck, which Amy had been holding her hand over. She had been ever so slightly thinking about it's mystery since they started speaking. The bruises could very well have something to do with this conversation. However, somewhere between them, there was an silent similarity – neither one wanted to talk about it. If Yugi had to come see how she was after all this, then whatever happened had to been strange enough to make Amy not want to know what it was. On Yugi's side, he thought it better that she not remember. So there was an unspoken drop of the subject.

The moment got quiet, not tense, or awkward, or relaxed, just quiet. On top that, neither our Oc, nor the cannon main character, made any significant movement. Amy looked at the ground, Yugi looked at the above. After a couple of minutes, Amy brought the conversation back to life, noting that Yugi wasn't leaving, and no one else was coming looking for him.

"Is everyone else still in the building?" she looked up at the sky now, too. Her body leaning back, hands grasping the back of the seat, left leg crossing over her right.

He shook his head to the side in response. "No, visiting hours are over, I told them to go home. You should go home too."

The two got up, Amy muttering "Go home, riiiiiight." sarcastically, low enough so Yugi wouldn't hear. After stretching her arms up in the air, she held her arms behind her head as the walked, in the manner where one intertwines their fingers together and puts both palms on the back of one's head. She sightly arced her back to stretch it, and finally closed her eyes as she walked. Maybe like this she could relax a bit.

"Hey Amy..."

Or maybe not.

"What's up Sport?" Hopefully calling him Sport would throw him off enough so he wouldn't talk.

It didn't work. Yugi only paused for a moment before he continued, "What did Pegasus mean about telling me about what we were wearing and -"

Amy opened one eye, then stretched her right arm out. The two were in arms length of each other. Her finger touched his lips, the surprise of the gesture cutting off his sentence midway. "Sshhh." They both stopped walking. "I think today has been crazy enough. This isn't the time. Tomorrow, I promise."

The female retracted her hand, bringing it back up to her head and again intertwining her fingers. She entered the stretch of road, without turning to Yugi to say goodbye.

_'Amy.' _

_'Yeah?'_

_'Where are we going?'_

_'Home.'_

_'You don't have a home here in Japan. Are we doing the usual thing?'_

_'Yeah.'_

* * *

Narrator's Note: I was going to upload two chapters to say th- ahhhhh ahem - I mean because I felt like it, but this next chapter is kicking my [4filter]. Frig the manga from constantly closing on me. And frig Joey for talking so much.


	5. Chapter Four: Second Unexpected Delivery

**UPDATED NARRATOR's NOTE (JULY 21, 2014): For reason, I have changed the ending of this chapter. Just a few sentences. It doesn't really matter right now, but come next chapter, it'll matter. More or Less.**

[On Track]*[Extra/Non Extra]

Disclaimer: Gasp! Do you know who wrote and illustrated the manga for Yu-Gi-Oh!? Unless someone pulls a random conspiracy theory out of there butts, it's Kazuki Takahashi. And then the anime that this fanfic is based on is done by Nihon Ad System and Gallop, not by Toei Animations. Because, gasp! Toei did an adaptation too! Only that was on Season 0. Nihon Ad System worked off of the Duelist manga. 4Kids licensed the freaking thing in North America and then there was draaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaa. Sing it with me, you know you want to. Draaaaaammmmmaaaaaaaaaaa. Now the North American license is under Konami's 4K Media Inc.. This means if you buy any of the new release box set this shiny golden typeface at the bottom will say "4K Media Inc.". Feel free to gasp at the realization that 4Kids is extinct.

Narrator's Note: I'll admit, I did slack out on the editing this time. I only looked through the chapter four times, so, I missed a loooooooot of mistakes. This was going to be a double upload chapter, but halfway through I wanted to punch Joey in the face... If I, you know, wasn't text and had actual hands. This chapter follows a little bit of the next episode, "Journey to Duelist Kingdom". And it only goes through like the first five minutes or so of the episode and some of the manga. This is only a four thousand word chapter. I think that's the norm. Especially for extra chapters, which is weird, because you think I would have more information coming straight from the multicolored animation.

* * *

**Chapter Four - Second Unexpected (Yet Expected) Delivery: "Thank you, Amy. I'm going to save my grandpa from Pegasus no matter what."**

Alternate Titles: Info-dumping on a Sun Set Roof, The Hamburger and the Cheeseburger, Of Serenity Part One

* * *

The sun was setting on an awkward day of school. The day seemed to drag on forever, it was clear that everyone in the group had things on their minds, as no one really spoke to each other much. Even Amy backed off, understanding how the others must feel. Surprisingly, even Bakura didn't approach her about yesterday's stunt of ditching cleaning duty.

At the end of school, Yugi went out to the roof, starring at the sunset. Yugi grasped on to the fencing protecting the edge of the school. The blond of his hair was illuminated by the deep colored lights being emitted by the sky. It wasn't until the door coming up to the roof clicked did Yugi take his eyes off the sunset.

"Oh, Amy."

When Amy opened the door, she viewed Yugi in front of that sunset. She hadn't expected the scene to look quite like it did, and it was like her heart stopped for just a moment, as if the whole world stopped. The sunset had outline Yugi. The brim of his figure was bright with the bleeding pigments of color from the sun, and slowly that brightness transitioned into his darker normal colors. He looked at her with his wide eyes, sad and distracted within his thoughts. Yugi took one hand off of the fence, so he could turn fully face Amy. She could feel her cheeks involuntarily heating up. There was a strange fluttering feeling inside her that was new.

"I was just about to come find you." he continued.

Flustered, and cursing herself for being so, Amy couldn't find the right way to form a sentence. She could only squeak out a muttered, "Yeah." Then made her way over to the fence and held on to it without saying much more. She stationed herself right next to where Yugi was standing. He turned himself back to the world of Domino, and they starred out together.

Silence loomed between them, floating around with the weight of a feather. Her eyes would occasionally steal glances to the side just as she would calm down, and she would blush again. "So... um... since the Millennium Items..." she started.

Yugi looked over and cut off her sentence, "The what?"

Whatever strange feeling had lingered over the moment was shattered. She snapped her body to the side, letting go of the fence. "Come again?!"

His eyes widened, and he too let go of the fence, only it's in this case it was to hold his palms as a defensive wall. "Millennium Items. Do you mean like my puzzle?"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Tightening her hand into fists, she hopped to the side. As your narrator, I have to suggest you imagine her body as a distorted angry anime chibi. It suits the situation more. Just for this small portion. Yes, I know Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't big on chibis, but use your freaking imagination, human! "That's the basics! What was Pegasus doing whole time, combing his hair? What about Egypt? Did he say anything about Egypt?"

"Um, no." he leaned back a little. "What about Egypt?"

"That lazy good for nothing! Did he tell you ANYTHING?" Amy fumed, flailing her still (should you choose to imagine it) chibi arms around.

"He kind of made it seem like you would explain everything. But he did mention the Shadow Realm."

(If you went ahead and did what I asked, you can stop imaging her as a chibi and go back to normal Yu-Gi-Oh! style. You should go back a few lines and totally reread that portion in with Amy in regular style and see that I was right. I was totally right.)

Amy's face tightened, like she had another fit of rage that she was trying to conceal rather then let out. A "Nnn" sound escaped her mouth, her fists tightening up and arms bending so her fists were next to her face. Then she let it go, relaxing her shoulders and dropping her and arms to hang loosely. This was all tied together with a very large sigh, afterwords saying, "He made it seem like I would explain everything, huh?"

Yugi leaned forward again, silent and waiting. He watch as Amy straightened up and the took hold of his puzzle. "There was once a time in Egypt where powerful figures used dark magic to battle each other, some historians call them Shadow Games. I guess it was around 5,000 years ago or so. They battled with demons, monsters, and magic. Pegasus made the card game, basing it on these ancient battles.

"When the dark magic got out of control, it's said that a great pharaoh sealed it away. The tale has something to do with the creation of seven great Millennium Items. Artifacts of power and magic."

Yugi gasped slightly. "My puzzle?"

"Your puzzle is one of the seven. Pegasus's eye was another. He used its magic to steal your grandfather's soul. All of the items have their own special uses. Even your puzzle." She took one hand off of the puzzle, shifting it so it balanced in the center of that palm. With her now free hand, she grabbed Yugi's wrist and brought it up, lastly placing the puzzle in his hand. "Keep it safe."

Amy stepped back an gave him some space. She was expecting the look of surprise Yugi had plastered on his face. Also expected was the next question.

"How do you know all this?"

Amy put her arm up, knuckles facing Yugi. The end of the girl's uniform fit well enough that the sleeve stayed up when she lifted her arm, but it wasn't so tight that Amy's bracelet bulged out from under it. Since the night she arrived, Amy had been trying to keep her bracelet covered up. The idea was to not encourage questions before the right time.

Now was the right time.

She pulled her sleeve down, and her bracelet simmered with the setting sun.

"You have one, too!" he started, "That's right, I remember seeing it the night you came to my house."

But Amy had to shake her head at that. "It's not part of the same set. My bracelet was cut from a different mold then the others, presumably also at a far later time. It still has some magic to it, but nothing like the seven." She pointed to the Eye of Anubis on her item, tracing her finger around its shape. "The design of the eye is flawed in several places like these break marks at the bottom, aside from that its smaller then the ones on the seven." It was true, the eye was much smaller then the one on the puzzle. He bottom looked like two cleaned breaks about an inch apart from each other. Amy always assumed it was a mistake in the molding.

While she was talking, the female put her arm and sleeve back down. She waited for Yugi's response, something to reassure her he had been able to absorb everything.

She instead received a completely unexpected reaction. She had thought that this would be a repeat of last night when she was explaining things to Joey – being asked to explain or choose what happens next - and Amy was prepared to get frustrated the same way. Instead, Yugi said something completely different. He said, "Thank you, Amy. I'm going to save my grandpa from Pegasus no matter what."

Amy felt herself blush one more time. This time it wasn't from overactive pheromones, but from embarrassment. The kind of embarrassment that even though people were embarrassed, there was a secret feeling of happiness. And Amy smiled slightly. "We should probably go home."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"So you like hamburgers? Really?" Amy made a sour face. "Not even with cheese? Come on Yugi, they have to have cheese. Without it the cheese it's just a burnt piece of meat."

He shrugged in response, "I guess I've always preferred it without."

"Ew. That's super gross. Especially when they're fast food burgers, cheese is the only thing that keeps them from tasting completely nasty." she muttered, sticking out her tough momentarily in disgust.

"Well," Yugi started, "at least fast food burgers are never burnt."

Amy nodded, agreeing with his statement, but ready to simultaneously disagree. "True that. But then again, I'm pretty sure if the patty did burn, the thing would disintegrate on touch. They're so thin. You know we used to have a cartoon back in America where one of the main settings was a fast food restaurant. The burgers always looked so good, animated like they were. It's what started the hold burger spiel when I was a kid. But then I moved to pasta."

"You came from America?"

Frowning at the fact that she had accidentally let that fact slip out, and even more so at the fact that it was all he seemed to take from the story, Amy looked away. "Yeah."

The subject changed quickly as soon as Kame Game was on the horizon. Three bodies were standing by the door, three very familiar bodies. And as soon as Yugi caught sight of them, they caught sight of him.

"Yugi!" Téa called, waving her hand in the air. Neither Joey nor Tristan waved. Joey looked as if he was holding something – a mail package. His videotape.

Yugi stopped for a second. "Guys?" Then tightened his hands, as they were holding onto his bag straps, and ran towards the game shop. Amy ran after him wordlessly, holding up her little indifferent book bag.

Téa handed him an envelope. "This was stuck in your door."

Yugi nodded in gratitude and took it from her, opening the top quickly. He moved his hands to the bottom of the envelope and shimmied the contents upward. "These are Duel Monsters cards!"

"It must be from Pegasus!" Tristan cut in.

Yugi nodded, then looked around the group. "What are you guys doing here?"

Now it was Joey's turn to cue in. "Brace yourself. It's just like Amy said." Joey slipped the tape out from the package, "Look what I just got! A videotape addressed to me! The mailman delivered it today!"

"You got a videotape too?!"

Amy just pointed to Kame. "We should do this inside."

.~~~~~~~~~~.

Yugi had the cards laid out on the floor. Next to each other, they seemed to deliverer a timeline of events.

'Duelist Kingdom'.

'Voyage to the Kingdom'.

'The Honor of the King's Right'.

'Duelist's Glove'.

'The Honor of the King's Left'.

The gang chatted about the clues that the cards held. They examined each card and went over the purpose of the first two, from the boat that boards to the island, to the island itself. While everyone talked, Amy stayed silent and moved the cards around in the correct order. "Each tells you a little about Duelist Kingdom." Tristan stated finally.

Per usual, Amy rolled her eyes, "With a keen eye for detail like that, one truth shall surely prevail."

"You know, being sarcastic all the time makes you really unattractive." said Detective Tristan.

Amy mimicked his tone and wording, "You know telling a person they're unattractive makes you really unattractive."

Yugi went over to the package from yesterday as they bickered, taking the glove out, he turned it around to admire all of the star spots. He then reached over to the star chips and held them in the other hand. Amy picked up the card and read it out loud, "_All Duelists must have at least one Star Chip on their wrist band at all times._ What a bunch of crap."

In response he placed the Star Chips in the glove. "These Star Chips must be proof as your status as a Duelist. And you bet these Star Chips on your duels."

Amy passed the card to Téa, whom looked at it front and back. Two more cards lay untouched, the blank white one and the card with the image of treasure. The short female picked them up, handing the blank one to Yugi. "These are the last two." She gave the other one to Tristan. "'The Honor of the King's Right', it's a three million dollar reward to the winner of the tournament."

"Three million? That's a lot of money." Tristan responded in awe, passing the card along.

"But there's nothing written on the other card, 'The Honor of the King's Left'! There's some honor that only the one who becomes the king can get!"

"Those are the last of the cards." Amy shook her head, putting the five in a pile. "Now you know what Pegasus is expecting you to do."

Yugi looked at the Duel Glove, then slipped it on for the first time. "Yeah. In a few days the ship will set off."

"Lets watch Joey's video next." Téa said reluctantly.

The room got heavy. Joey nodded, maneuvering himself in front of the television, he turned the television on and inserted the tape. The VCR flickered, and then the face appeared on screen. But it wasn't the face everyone in the room expected. There was no silver haired man on the screen, but a sweet faced girl instead.

"Hey there big brother! How have you been? I really miss you!"

Everyone else but Amy gasped. "Joey did she say big brother?!" Yugi blurted.

Serenity's soft face appeared on the screen as she waved her hand in greeting. Joey muttered her name under his breath. Even he wasn't expecting this, and in front of his friends no less. Now he would have to explain despite the fact that his sister was such a personal matter. But before that, he would have to finish the tape.

Tristan showed the most surprise out of all of them. "How could Joey have a sister this cute?!"

The tape continued as the others shouted. Joey didn't even hear his friends in the background. His entire world was centered around the television at that moment. "I can't believe it's been six years since we've seen each other. I'll never forget the day Mom took me to live with her. I'm sending you just so you don't forget your little sister's face."

The more the others listen, the more confused they appeared. And worried.

"It seems like I'm running out of time... I was hoping to see you once more... before... well, uh, you understand."

Amy crossed her arms and watched the tape. Her face was solid and unphased, as if she was patiently waiting for the video to finish.

"Bye bye, brother." In the video, Serenity paused for a moment, and looked down. Her face melted over with sadness. But in the end, Serenity tried to smile. "So long... take care Joey."

The tape ended, making the VCR flicker again. No one could speak, they could only wait for Joey to explain, unsure of what to think, and not wanting their imaginations to take the best of them.

Today on "Yu-Gi-Oh Out of Context" we watch Serenity's video mail and use our imaginations to determine what kind of terminal illness she has. Whaaaaaaaat? What do you mean her going blind wasn't your first guess?

…...What? Why are you looking at me like that. Yeah, I'm being jerk, so what. We all know she'll get her vision back! Gwads! Look, I haven't interrupted the story really since that Chapter Two. Even though I'm the narrator and can do whatever I want, I've been really good! I deserve some screen time here.

Joey finished his explanation, which you didn't get to read through because I overwrote it with my previous sarcasm. Blahblahblah. Bad eyes. Blahblahblah. Divorce. Whhhhat do you want from me, to actually play the scene? Fine! You all are so boring. Let me rewind and starts from where I left off.

Joey's eyes drifted down, recalling memories from his past. "My parents...split up around six years ago. My sister went with my mom. They live pretty far away," he took a breath, "my sister has had eye problems since she was born..." The blond trailed off. "The doctors said that she would go blind eventually..."

Téa gasped. The boys stayed silent, while Amy let her eyes drift away. She let herself examine the wall. Even though Amy knew the story, having it presented straight to her face made her uneasy. She didn't know what an appropriate reaction would be.

"When she said one last time... that means..." the static of the television muffled out some of Joey's words.

Amy shook her head, looking back at the situation. It was just so sad... so pitiful. So antsy. Too antsy. And you wonder why I skipped this scene. So, Amy got up, and turned the T.V. off, ejecting the tape. She reached for the packaging, and slipped it back in. "It means she'll be going blind soon." Amy put the package down in front of him.

Joey didn't say anything, even when he picked up the tape. The only thing the blond did to respond is nod.

"I'm sorry man," she shook her head, "this is all because I thought Pegasus would send another stupid tape. Now we all know a huge personal secret."

An unreadable look came from the back. It was Tristan. As Amy spoke, Tristan seemed to listen keenly, and whatever he was thinking about didn't look pleasant. Not being able to quite tell the emotion, Amy dropped the thought, very sure that it must have something to do with his future ship Serenity. Since I'm the text and the narrator, I can tell you what he emotion he had. Suspicion. I'll tell you a secret – since the day before, when Amy told him not to go into the room, Tristan had been set on alert about her intentions in regards to his friends. And when Joey relayed the information Amy told him to Tristan, his pondering was mentally justified. There was something off about her. Since then, Tristan had been mentally going over her actions, and realized something the others failed to.

She knew way more then she was letting on.

Right now, the others took her words in with the most innocent of ideals. Even Joey, the way Joey had his head down, the hair draped over his eyes. He was letting his guard way down, because he was sure that there was only friends here. "No, it's alright. You guys would have found eventually. No matter how hard I would have tried to raise money, I never would have been able to raise enough money."

"Money?" Yugi asked. His thoughts instantly turned to the stack of cards sent by Pegasus.

"They say with the most advanced treatments out there, she has about a 50% chance of a successful operation to cure her. But where would I get that kind of money? I'm her big brother.." Now, Joey raised his fist in frustration and slammed it on the floor. "But I can't do anything to help her! Not one thing! I'm useless!"

"Joey, wait!" Yugi shouted.

He looked up at his short friend. "Yug?"

Yugi had taken the small pile of cards and star chips, sorting through them. "There is a way! Remember this?" He slipped 'The Honor of the King's Right' out of the pile. "With this you can earn the money that you need."

"B-but I don't have any Star Chips!" he responded.

Yugi smiled. "Of course you do Joey. Take one of mine."

"But you need those to get save your grandpa."

"I still have one. Take it Joey, proof that you're a duelist." Yugi held one in his palm for Joey to take. Joey repeated the last phrase as he picked up the Star Chip. Téa and Tristan responded at this point, gathering around for the purpose of encouraging their friends. And the little group smiled together and Amy could see, for the first time, why they will get as far as they will. If it was for a friend, there was no distance these four individuals wouldn't go. So Amy looked down at her bracelet, for the first time really longing to be a part of that equation.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

She yawned, a big, dinosaur call type yawn. Having her arms crossed on the desk before her, Amy put her head down on the space in between. One of the nearby students simply looked her way and starred. In response, she looked his way and glared. Right after she rubbed her eyes because they were tiered from glaring.

_'You've got to find some better way to spend the nights you don't stay at Yugi's house.'_ Amiee's spirit appeared next to Amy. She was crossing her arms behind her back and looking down with those wide sweet eyes._ 'You haven't slept in two days.'_

_'Oh posh you nag. You sound like my mom.' _she pouted._ 'It only a once and a while thing so it doesn't really matter.'_

_'You could find another way...'_

_'Mm...It's fine Amiee, it's one of those things you gotta do things.'_

Amy reached into her bag and fumbled around a bit. It took a minute, but she pulled out her wallet. She turned it upside down grudgingly. A couple of 100 yen coins tumbled out, rolling around on her desk. She picked one up and examined it. "Food money budget is low." she muttered. _'See, that's what I've got to do.'_

Amiee could only worriedly shrug. _'I guess if you say so.'_

The next thing that happened was Yugi entered the classroom, immediately walking over to Amy's desk. "Did you get home okay?"

Amy was too tiered to add a sarcastic tone to her words, but she meant them sarcastically for what it's worth. "I'm here, aren't I?" She started to put the coins back in her wallet while talking.

"You look tired."

She waved her finger around to make a small sarcastic circle. It was one way to express the emotion without toning it. "I could start the couldn't sleep speech, but that would be too much effort. I hate effort. Effort takes so much time and energy and would be exhausting."

Another anime sweat drop appeared on Yugi's head. "You sure are putting a lot of effort into describing effort."

She turned her head around and muttered. "That's my jam." Téa walked into the classroom, and Amy pointed a finger at the door, her hand in gun form. She lifted it up to represent it firing, hoping it would direct Yugi's attention to the door. It worked, and Yugi spotted Téa, going over to talk to her.

Closing the bag, Amy stuffed her wallet back in as the homeroom teacher entered the room. Everyone sat down in there seats while something incoherent to Amy was being said from the podium, and grey dots began to dance in front of her eyes. The female, while still laying her head down on the table, turned her head to where Yugi was sitting, watching him look attentively at the homeroom teacher. Those grey dots grew, and merged together, and the voice of the room distanced itself, becoming farther away with each word. Amy watched Yugi until take grey mass covered her vision completely and turned black.

.~~~~~~~~~~.

Our main original character slept through about a half of the school day. For the most part she was only dozing off on the school desk, awake then asleep then awake again, catching a few points of the lessons in between. Then at on point, the teacher sarcastically asked her if she would like wake up and join the rest of us or to go to the nurses office to take her beauty sleep. Rather then be embarrassed like most students would, she answered with "Oh, hell yes." only catching about half of what was said, and walked out of the room before she could be told to sit down.

When she got back to the real world, lunch had started. She sat down with the others as they ate around he desks. And by sat, I mean plopped herself down without ask, saying groggily, "That dem good nap." Amy used the word "dem" here replaces [4filter], as to not be held down by the man – or in this case, the word censor. Same way she does with "flippin", "freaking", "dirk", and the rest of her colorfully censored vocabulary.

The group was chatting about something when she interrupted. Presumably, they were going over how Téa, Tristan, and Amy would have to stay behind while the other two went to Duelist Kingdom. No Star Chips meant no entry.

"This is bad..." Téa said, after Amy made her grand entrance and the group got back on topic. "I can't there's nothing we can do to help..."

"I can't believe we're stuck here while you two are going through the most important tournament of your lives." Tristan said frustrated, leaning back on his chair.

"I can't believe..." Amy started, rubbing her eyes. Everyone looked her way, "That you two are giving up. I'm going to Duelist Kingdom."

The others looked surprised (Do you notice how often they end up looking surprised? They'd better stop, because if I have to say "surprised" or "shocked" one more time, I'm going to flip my crap.) Accept Tristan, his eyes showed him going on alert. Suspicion oozed from him again, like it had the day before. Only this time, Amy was just sleepy enough to notice it. And she panicked a bit inside, realizing her last sentence might have been a slip up. She chose her next words as carefully as possible. "I...I'm going with you guys no matter what it takes. Tristan's right, this is too important to stay behind."

"But how?" Yugi asked.

She looked over at Tristan, who was watching her like a hawk. "I'll find a way." she muttered. '_I have my ways.'_

The rest of the day, Amy was attentive enough. She took a few notes, day dreamed a little, but didn't go back to sleep. The day went back to being normal, for a while anyways. The teacher wrapped up the final class, and Amy was organizing her notes. Her peripheral vision caught a boys uniform standing over the side of her desk. Her eyes meet up with the distracted and unhappy looking mass of a person waiting for her attention. Tristan. And the look of his face just screamed to Amy that this day wasn't done being a pain in the [4filter].


	6. Chapter Five: Pride and Conflict

[On Track]*[Extra]

Disclaimer: While everything here is still originated from Kazuki Takahashi, and the story still follows the Nihon Ad System and Gallop anime adaptation of Duelist, I admit that used some references from the original manga, and from Toei Animation's adaptation. So, copyright credits all around. Cheers.

Narrator's Note: Lots of notes here, and I'm in too much of a rush to be sarcastic with you today. Lucky you.

I did alter the end of the last chapter to make it more IC. Leaving a note just wasn't Tristan's style. If you were around for the original upload of that chapter, you could go back and reread it, it's only an altercation to the last paragraph. Or you choose not too go back. I don't care.

I used Episode 25 of the Toei Animation adaptation as a resource for Bakura's apartment. There are a few shots of a few of the areas of his apartment, obliviously the Monster World Room, and the Room with the line of figurines and desk. There's also a small glimpse of the hallway in one scene. I had to guess the rest of his apartment using my vague sense of logic. he had to have a Kitchen somewhere, right? I couldn't find anything on his mother, but there is a page in the manga, before the Monster World battle, where Bakura is writing a letter to someone, presumably his dead sister. And we know that his father's occupation, as he made reference to that in the Nihon Anime (Episode 13) On that same note, there is a reference to Tea's house and room in Episode 52 "The Pharaoh's Lost Memories" ("The Past is Present") (Again, Nihon Adaptation). Per usual, I went through and edited a couple of times, but still must have missed so much.

For those of you coming across this story as its uploaded, I plan on doing a massive edit update sometime in September of 2014 where I go through all the chapters, find typos, fix them, and miss even more typos. Maybe do some grammatical restructuring. Who knows.

The next chapter will finish the third episode. It won't be another extra. Cross my heart and hope to crash. (see what I did there? Text doesn't die, it crashes! Ha! I'm funny

... It's funny. Laugh human.

And of course, I have to smack that stupid rate and review blurb on here. But if you don't feel like it, don't do it. On the same note, I refuse I comment on how happ- I mean, um, generally interested your feedback has made me. I don't thank people ever. But if I did, I might... Maybe... Oh never mind! Let just get to the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Five - Pride and Conflict "_'but my pride's the only thing I got going for me right now.'_"**

Alternate Titles: Bakura Lives on the Sixth [4filter] Floor, The Poor Student's Cliché

* * *

Tristan opened the door to the roof, and Amy followed him with a grumble. She closed the door as stopped in the middle of area. They were silent until Amy put her hands in her pockets. "What could _you _possibly want from me?"

"I've got some questions." he answered simply, turning around, a hard look in his eyes.

Amy's muscles tightened. "What is this, some kind of interrogation Detective Tristan."

He closed the gap between them, clearly not amused. "You've got to be straight with me. How did you know that Joey was going to get a tape too?"

Agitation showed in Amy face, tightening her jaw. "Lucky hunch."

"I said you've got to be straight with me. How did you know?"

Her body was fully stiff and on alert now, "I told you, lucky hunch. Are you going anywhere with this?"

"I'm just saying it's pretty odd that you knew Grandpa's soul had been taken when the rest of us were completely in the dark."

She stayed silent.

"And that while we were at the hospital you used Joey as a cover, then disappeared nearly right after."

Amy was left with the pointless clarification question. While it was redundant, at least she could be sure with what he was saying. "You accusing me of something." It turned out to be more of a statement then a question.

He closed the gap between them completely. "Maybe I am. Maybe it seems like you're in line with Pegasus, and about to go on a trip with my buddies and I don't like it." By leaning down, he made himself a similar height to Amy, and grabbed onto her uniform collar, which she had loosened earlier in the day to make sleeping more comfortable. His fingers only wrapped around it loosely.

I should note here, that the way he was grabbing made it clear that he was only trying to intimidate her. You know how you can tell when someone is actually trying to hurt you, verses the way the grab you to intimate you or catch you attention? How there always feels like there's going to be another spring in their wrist if the person actually intends on following up with the threat, but otherwise they stiffen. Tristan had stiffened. He was trying to intimidate the truth out of her.

Where Tristan had expected her to pull away and start explaining the situation to him, something very different happened. Amy looked at his face, so close her hers, and for just a second, Bakura's face flashed in her mind. The memory of that rainy night flashed back to her, clear as day. The feeling from that night flashed back as well – the aggravation of realizing the best choice was to not fight with Bakura, the anger of seeing his cocky face and forcing herself to be helpless, the idea that she had to be fair, because the body itself belonged to an innocent boy who had nothing to do with this.

But this time, there was no innocent boy on the other side of her emotions. There was just Tristan.

Something inside Amy snapped.

When her arm jerked upward, it seemed like it had done it all on it's own, without any consent from Amy. Her body felt like it was controlling itself, not listening to the logic in her brain. Her fist collided with Tristan's jaw, and he staggered backwards. But unfortunately for Amy, this was the type of situation that Tristan was used to. He recovered almost immediately, sending a retaliation back her way. She crossed her arms in from of her body.

While her arms protected her from the punch, the force threw her back to the roof. She hit hard, and it took her longer to recover then it had Tristan.

Two objects tumbled from Amy's pockets when she made impact with roof. They were small stars, rolling as the momentum carried them from one point to the next until they circled and fell down. Star Chips. The big entrance fee into Duelist Kingdom.

Without noticing the Star Chips, she got up and huffed. The fight was taking all of her attention. Amy attempted to strike him again, the image of the Spirit of the Ring enraging her mind. Behind them, the sound of the door opening lifted through the tension. Nether herd it. Tristan stepped to the left, making Amy's wild attack leave her open, and he sent a right hook into her gut.

An alien noise escaped her, thrown back to the surface of the roof. This time, Amy didn't get up on her feet, instead, she rolled over, clutching her gut, coughing – loosing her breath and trying to catch it all in the same instance.

The sounds of the rest of the world disappeared, the visuals of the rest of the world disappeared. Her senses were blocked by a momentary rush of adrenaline. Slowly, it began fade, the tension faded away, and Amy began to recognize her surroundings in the real world. There was an arm wrapped around her back and shoulder. A familiar yell that said her name, asking if she was alright, like it had so many times before. The purple of the boys uniform in her vision.

Yugi Muto.

Joey was in a conflict with Tristan. The blond was holding his friend back as they yelled at each other. Yugi said something else, this time to Tristan. The two of them must have seen Tristan and Amy exit and followed them. The female still breathed in and out, now taking deep breaths, her body still trying to get back the breath she had lost. Now if only her ego could get back what it lost after that humiliating blow, Amy would be all good.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~.

The pebble tumbled onto the road. She located another one to kick soon after. The girl was strolling through now with a hunch in her step, exhausted from this afternoon's ventures. _'I'm so sick of this.' _Amy sighed mentally. _'The good news is Duelist Kingdom is next.'_

Amiee appeared next to her, per usual. _'Are you alright?' _

The other gave a sour face, wincing as she put her hand back to her stomach. _' Obliviously. He didn't hit me as hard as he could of, must have been holding back for some unholy reason. I'm just glad I didn't throw up. It would have been all over Yugi. There will just be bruising. I certainly can't go to Yugi's after that scene.'_

Amiee's expression turned to confusion. _'You can't? Why not?'_

Amy stopped, and turned to Amiee, which was awkward to watch considering she was looking at the wall now. She pointed to herself and with sluggish confidence, turning her hand to the side so her thumb was doing the pointing. _'Pride!'_

Amiee face remained the same. _'Pride?'_

_'Right. You see Amiee, society is built on the action and reaction of individuals. Whatever I do now will represent my response to Tristan's earlier actions.' _

_'But...'_ the other started, _'going to Yugi's would have nothing to with to do with Tristan.'_

Amy slowly waved her finger in the spirit's face. _'That's true, however, because I have yet to have a reaction to the earlier event, society will assume whatever I do next is the reaction, despite the fact that there relation would be none existent. _

_'It's like the physics of the planet itself, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Because that rule is a part of the world we live on, it becomes a part of us. Those actions and reaction we choose to take will be judged by society. So, we as individuals have pride, which acts as a defensive wall to those judgments. Pride can protect us from those responses. Those responses are like allies and enemies, they can build up our pride or chip away at it, and in times of hardship, all we can see is that wall blocking our view of the world beyond it, and we can only act and react to what we can see.'_

Amiee started twisting her hair around her finger nervously. _'That's... really confusing.'_

The girl frowned. _'Would have preferred poetic or philosophical, but whatever.'_

_'I still don't see what that has to do with Yugi.' _

_'That's simple. Yugi was the one who broke our argument up.'_

_'So...?' _

_'So, I can't go to him afterward. It would look like I was admitting that he saved me or going to him like my hero or something.'_

_'But you're not doing anything like that. You would just be getting a place to sleep.'_

_'I wish it were that simple.'_

_'That sounds...' _Amiee hesitated, again stopping herself from releasing her own opinion.

So Amy filled the blank in for her. _'Stupid.' _Then she shrugged. _'Yeah, but my pride's the only thing I got going for me right now. This is one of those times I've got to follow the rules of the road when I'm driving.' _

There was edge in her mental tone.

The two passed by a convenience store, glancing into the window. Amy's stomach growled, and the two looked at each other. She flushed._'There's no way that came from me.'_

Amiee blinked and shrugged. _'Maybe the reason you didn't throw up was because you haven't eaten anything.'_

After fumbling a bit, she found her wallet. It took a few moments to total the amount of Yen, but it added up to enough to make Amy shrug. _'I guess something for later could hurt all that much.'_

Amy entered the store and eyed the products._'Maybe something instant. That's affordable.'_

_'What about noodles? You'll get more if you cut them into smaller cubes.' _Amiee smiled brightly, making one of her rare jokes.

_'Oh, sure,'_ Amy preformed one of her classic, not rare, eye rolls, _'use the old food budget cliché. Funny stuff.'_ She looked at the body products as she pasted them, spitting her attention between the two. Because of this, too late she spotted a familiar figure at the check out. A familiar, innocent looking, white haired figure, who turned around too fast for Amy to duck out.

_'[4fiiiiiiiiiiiiilter].'_

Bakura picked his bags up from the counter. "Good evening, Amy." He didn't miss a chance to be polite. He smiled.

Amy frowned. She was too tired for this right now. "Good, great, yeah."

"What are you doing here so late?" The two veered off by the body products to talk. Amy looked outside at the darkness falling over Domino.

Amy put her hand on her hip. For the umpteenth time all she could do was look at his face, and it looked genuine. But that previous release of anger had left her without her usual fire. At least, for the moment, she would be calm enough to have a regular conversation with the Thief King/Innocent Bystander Hybrid. In her venture to conceal her weakened state, which Amy considered both her hunger and exhaustion to be, she had naturally answered with a lie. "Batteries." she blurted slowly, choosing a random fib. "I needed to get batteries. For my camera."

She mentally smacked herself, again, and Bakura just starred at her. "I didn't know you had a camera." Following up on her lie, she went over to the battery section. He followed her over and stood by as she scanned through the batteries.

"Yeah. It's nothing fancy or anything." she muttered, gabbing a pack of batteries. "But I have gotten a few good shots from it." And she headed over to the cashier, again, Bakura following her still making polite conversation. One part of her wanted to groan, knowing how much this rouse was going to cost and what it meant for her budget.

"What kind of things do you take pictures of?" he asked.

Amy examined the money she pulled out of her wallet and silently wished it well for the rest of it's journey through the economy. "Um, food mostly." The other part of her was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, as she realized that truths were starting to slip into the lie. "I like to photograph the things I cook."

"Would you like a bag?" the young cashier asked shyly.

Picking up the batteries from the counter, she shook her head. Bakura waited for her to finish before they left the store together. As they walked, they made small talk. Amy waited for a good time to ditch. It's notable to point out here that Amiee had gone silent, hidden away. She always did this when Bakura was around, it didn't matter whether he was Ryo, or the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, Amiee always left her vessel to her own devices.

"So you like to cook?" he persisted in his reserved manner.

"Look," Amy growled, "can we talk about something besides me?!"

The white haired sweetie (or arse-clown, depending on which one was in control at the time) was taken aback, unsure of how to really respond. "Um, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure what else to talk about. I live in this direction, so there wasn't really anywhere else to go..."

A sudden noise cut off Bakura. Another sudden noise followed. Amy got the perfect chance to be sarcastic. "We could talk about that."

One of Bakura's bags had ripped at the bottom and some of him belongings had tumbled onto the ground. A loaf of bread, some instant food, canned food, and various other of Bakura's purchases were scattered about. "Oh dear!" he blurted, British and panicky. He knelt to the ground, setting the other bag down and gathering up the reminiscence. And with a sign, Amy knelt down to help.

"How do we always end up picking crap up together I swear to gwad." she muttered, shoving the useless batteries in her pocket.

He looked up, some items in hand. "I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, I'm sure." she huffed, getting up with the bread in one arm and a bento in the other.

"What am I going to do now?"

"They all won't fit in the bag, that's for sure. Unless you want to be in the same position two minutes from now." she grabbed a few more things. "Before you panic anymore, I'll help you bring them to your apartment." Bakura opened his mouth to say something before he was cut off by more Amy. "And if you're going to say anything with the word 'appreciate' in it, I swear gwad..."

He shut his mouth.

"Better." she motioned, arms fill with convenience store products and waiting. "Lead the way."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"WHY" Amy shouted, as Bakura opened the door to the apartment, "THE [4filter] DO YOU LIVE ON THE SIXTH [4filter] FLOOR?!" She marched into the room in an angry exaggerated fashion, passing the _Agari kamachi_ and into the hall.

Bakura struggled to get his key out of the door fast enough to catch up with the raging female. "Amy! Stop shouting, you'll disturb the neighbors! And your shoes!" He then struggled to change into his slippers fast enough to catch up with her.

"[4filter] MY SHOES. TELL ME WHICH DOOR TO GO THROUGH."

"Shouldn't we go back and get the bread you dropped first?"

"[4filter] THE BREAD!"

Baukra opened a door on right nearby where she stood. "Over here..."

She ran into the room and dropped the what was left of her armful of groceries. He came in soon after and set the bag down on the small table. She let out a huff. "Finally. I try to do something nice and I end up climbing Mount Everest." He just responded with an anime sweat drop and an nervous smile, unsure of what else to do. That is, until Amy's stomach made her hunger a public matter again. The only thing the female could do in response to her noisy belly was blush.

"If you don't have anywhere to be, you're welcome to stay for dinner." he smiled politely, still a little nervous, "It's the least I could do after all the help."

Amy looked the other way, too embarrassed to make eye contact. "...If I stay then I guess I should go change my shoes..." she muttered. Bakura just nodded like that was something that would be appreciated.

Entering the hallway for the second time, she actually got the chance to take a good look around. The hall wasn't very wide, and the ceiling was a dark color. Other then that, the place looked completely ordinary, wall color, room set up, everything. Still, counting the rooms left Amy a little puzzled. She slipped her shoes off and located the guest slippers. There were too many rooms for a high school student living on his own, but too few rooms for a family_. _

Guest slippers. Amy looked down at the slippers in her hand, and they looked practically new. She examined the few other pairs, which all were in the same state. None of them looked like they were used daily. "Hey Bakura." Amy called. She thought out the wording to this question very carefully, not wanting to sound totally, completely rude. "Is it alright with everyone else if intrude on dinner?"

Bakura peeked out the door. "There's no one else here."

"Oh. Okay. Your parents work late or something?"

He should his head. "No, just me. I live by myself."

Amy's eye twitched slightly in response,_ 'What kind of highschooler who lives alone has this big of an apartment.'_

Thinking that prying any further would not only be rude, by apt to get her kicked out, Amy just shrugged. "Righto." She slipped the footwear on and joined Bakura.

"Are instant noodles alright? I know it's not much, but I forgot to go grocery shopping this week, so what I have from the convenience store is pretty much all I have right now."

Knowing what she had carried up, as well as spotting the few things in the other bag, Amy came to a different conclusion. One single bento, a few instant meals, and some other miscellaneous things. It was clear that this was only enough food for a day or two, and maybe, just maybe, some traveling meals. Bakura was lying to her. He didn't forget to buy groceries, he was preparing for the trip to Duelist Kingdom and the day and a half before it. This set Amy on alert, more then ever questioning which Bakura she was in the presence of.

With her lack of resonance, Bakura threw out another suggestion out there. "I got this fried chicken from the convenience store. It's a little colder now, but it's still good. I can heat that if you like."

"Agh!" this jolted the female out of analysis mode. "One does not simply reheat fried chicken. Gwad!" She scrambled over to where he was pulling out the fried chicken. "You said you have instant noodles, didn't you? And you must have some of those 'don't go bad condiments', somewhere, right?"

He looked surprise by her sudden outburst. "I..um, I could look."

"Alright then, I'll take that chicken and you start heating up a few blocks of those noodles."

He gave her the chicken reluctantly, no less confused then he was a second ago. "Just the noodles?"

She brought the bag over to the table and shifted some things out of the way. "Just the noodles." The surviving bag she went to lift up and physically went to move, when a piece of paper underneath it caught her eye. The paper looked like the begging of a letter. It was only a quick glance she took at it, but enough to feel like it was something personal she shouldn't of seen_. _

_Dear Amane,_

_How are you? You and mother must be busy. Your brother is. Aside from school, which is always keeping me busy, I've been preparing for a short trip. There was a tournament I heard about and thought it might be fun to go..._

_"_What about the rest of the stuff in the cup?" Baukra's voice cut through the words. Amy threw the bag back onto of it in a panic, and use to page to slide the bag across the table instead. She tried to hide the look of guilt that comes from looking at something so personal, but ultimately failed to.

"Just, um, throw it in a bag or something."

He shrugged, and did so, while Amy started taking the skin off of the fried chicken. Embarrassment was still written all over her expression. "You got any vegetables or something? I know you don't have any fresh, but you got any canned or frozen?"

"I might."

"Fan- freaking- tastic." she muttered, anything to keep him from turning around. She started pulling the now skinless chicken apart into smaller bits. She heard the sound of the chunks of dried noodle falling into a pot of water. They would be soft and ready in a few minutes. Then, she heard Bakura open a can. "Grab me a skillet while you're at it." she added.

He nodded looking back, "Are you sure you have time for this? This preparation is taking an awfully long time..."

She shrugged. "I've got nowhere to be. My house is kind of... being pest bombed." Amy reflected on how much lying she had been doing lately. It was weird how so much of what she said was a lie. As kid, Amy had always been good at stretching the truth to cover things up. It was those reasons that made her so sure she was – as the expression goes – going to hell, and yet those same magic fibbing abilities were saving her butt right now.

"Oh." he had pulled out a small skillet now. "So are you staying with Yugi or Téa?"

Amy stopped to think about her response. "Something like that. I need vegetable oil." She took the skillet and chicken, and when she got the oil, Amy turned the stove on and started cooking. And she couldn't help but smirk. "Ready for some ghetto stir-fri?"

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Amy's attention was torn again. She was looking up at Bakura's apartment building, all six floors of it. At the same time, her cell phone was up to her, ringing. A female voice answered on the other end.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Téa was sitting at her desk, watching her pink curtains wave in and out. "Did that really happen Yugi?"

She was on the phone, had been for a while. Téa had already had her dinner and bath, and was settling down to finish a few problems of homework she had left.

"Yeah..." Yugi answered from the other end of the call.

"That's weird." Téa was previously holding the phone on her shoulder, but now picked it up and held it in her hand. "Tristan wouldn't just attack one his friends. At least without good reason." She looked down at her other hand, picturing the symbol the four of them shared. The sharpie marker symbol that bonded the four of them together. She couldn't help but feel like Amy was to blame for this; Amy wasn't apart of that pact.

"I don't know what happened before. Joey and I missed the beginning... I'm not sure he's the one who actually started it." There was an exhaustion in his voice. He just wasn't sure what to do.

This sent a sad tinge through Tea's heart. She didn't know how to cheer him up. "It'll be alright. I'm sure there's a good reason for it." she attempted to sound encouraging, although not believing a word of it herself. I don't have to remind you that Téa has this one distinctive passivise quality. She doesn't understand why people have to fight, never mind why friends should fight. You remember all of her soliloquies through out the series regarding it. I don't have to waste your time and mine going through it.

There was beep in the middle of the conversation that distracted her from what she was saying. She pulled the phone back for a second, seeing that there was an incoming call. "I've got to go Yugi. There's another call coming in."

"Okay," he answered after a minute, "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Night Téa." Then he hung up before she could say goodbye herself. Téa looked down at her phone, thinking about how everything was piling on Yugi's plate at once, and how hard it must be. She was sad for him. Then, Téa picked up the next call.

"Amy?"

Amy voice came through other end. "Hey Téa..."

She looked to her ceiling, "What's up?"

"Can I ask a favor? Man I have been racking up favors lately..." she sounded frustrated when mentioning the term "favors".

Téa crossed her legs. "Huh, sure."

"Can I crash at your place tonight? Mine's kind of being bombed for bugs. My parents thought it was a good idea to clean it up while I was away at Duelist Kingdom, but they started a day too soon."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Our OC unbuttoned her uniform top. Underneath there was a white tank top. _'I'm proud of you, asking for a place to stay. Even with your pride.'_ Amiee appeared next her and smiled.

_'Yeah well, it's not like Tea had anything to do with the fight, so it doesn't really count.' _She thought back, defending her choice of action.

The door opened behind her, and Amy pressed her clothes against her chest with a panic. Téa came into the room. "We just got rid of my old clothes. I was able to find of my old nightgowns though." She had a white gown draped over her arm as she turned around and closed the door.

Amy tried not to flinch. It wasn't the gown that bothered her, it was the fact that she was half naked when the other female walked in. But she remembered that this was Japan, and all of the pop culture references told her that girls her age were supposedly comfortable with exposing their bodies to other girls. If girls could wash the backs of there friends in a bathhouse, then she should have the guts to turn around. She was still wearing her tank top after all. Anything less would be an overreaction.

So, she let out a breath and turned around. "Thanks. That would be nice."

Téa looked surprised. "You wear a tank top under the other layers of the uniform?"

The other nodded. "It's a habit." She reluctantly let go of the uniform top, setting it down of Téa's bed. Arms exposed, there's a new piece of visual information that I'm obligated to let you know about. On Amy's left shoulder, there was a mark. A scar. To be more specific, a burn scar. It started on her shoulder, and extended about an inch onto her back. The scar was by no means fresh looking, but faded, looking quite comfortable in her skin.

Téa saw it as well, only she wasn't as subtle as I was while announcing it. "What happened to your arm?"

This made Amy a tad bit self conscious. "It's just an old burn. The reminisce of an everyday household accident." she turned to the side and lifted her tank top off, hoping she wasn't being too open, and quickly slipped the nightgown on. She shimmied her skirt off from underneath the nightgown, which covered her entire arms, but only went down to her knees.

Téa got the feeling that Amy didn't want to talk about it anymore, so she gracefully dropped the subject. Instead, she changed it to girl talk. Agh. Yes girl talk. Amy looked over to her after, and for a minute, she looked like a complete Lolita. The background might as well changed to pink and bubbles and flower outlines might have well appeared behind her.

"You look so cute." Tea commented, happily squealing over her female friend.

Amy's eyes got bigger for a second, then they narrowed with a blush. "W-why do you make that sound like a good thing? It's awful!" she held her arms out, "I look like a kid!"

"You know, you're about the as tall as Yugi." she commented.

"Yeah, but at least he's not done growing! We're girls! We're all done growing! I'm going to be short forever!" she blurted. After that, Amy gathered up the clothes she had scattered all over Téa's bed and folded them.

Téa giggled, finding it nice to have some female companionship. "My mom can put those through the wash tonight."

Where she was expecting an oblivious "Yes", after all who doesn't wash their clothes, Amy answered with a quick, "No thanks. I'll use the machines at school." before stacking her folded clothes up. Téa was surprised, unsure of how to respond. Asking had really only been a formality. Although Amy had seemed perfectly normal a minute ago, Téa was reminded just how unconventional the female was.


	7. Chapter Six: Vessel to the Kingdom

[On Track]

Disclaimer:_ My Yu-Gi-Oh! writer has a first name, it's Ka-z-u-ki. My Yu-Gi-Oh! writer has a second name, it's Ta-ka-ha-sh-i. I like to watch it every day, and if you ask me why I'll say, because Nihon Ad System adapted it and 4Kids went and dubbed that [4filter]._

Disclaimer for the Disclaimer: Oscar Freaking Mayer.

Narrator's Note: I know I promised to you people that there would be an edit-a-plusa. And, surprisingly, I have been working on it. Very carefully. I was going save this update for the edit-a-plusa, but I'm not done yet and September is at it's end. So, after carefully and patiently saving this chapter, I threw little strips of paper in the air that said "screw it" and am uploading it.

Oh, and I said that this chapter would end episode three.

I lied.

I would have loved to finish the episode, but someone tell that to Yugi, Amy, and Bakura, because they seemed to have missed that memo, lollygagging the frig around.

* * *

**Chapter Six - Vessel to the Kingdom: "I don't see why not."**

Alternate Titles: Bakura and the Missing Star Chips, All Together in a [4filter] Crate

* * *

When Amy woke up from the futon on the floor, her clothes had been moved. Last night she left them by the bottom of the futon. In the morning they were over by the door, stacked in a different order and refolded. On top of the stack sat her glasses case, and the weebo clip. It was clear to everyone and their best friend that her clothes had been washed.

A bit steamed about the fact that her wishes were ignored, Amy picked up her glasses case. She didn't want to open it, in fear of waking Téa with it's loud closing slam. She shook it around gently, trying to be as quiet as possible. The glasses could be heard inside, shifting back and forth. There was second noise from inside it, something smaller then the glasses hitting the edges. It sounded like her Star Chips were still inside.

Yes, Amy had been holding onto her Star Chips since before she arrived at Yugi's house during the prologue. She had them all along. When she had been staying at Yugi's constantly, Amy kept them with her spare clothes – the ones she was wearing that first night. Since the morning before the video incident, she put the Star Chips with her glasses, along with some emergency Yen, and kept it close in her uniform, holding the case while her clothes went through the wash at school and she waited in her P.E. clothes.

While Amy didn't take the time to visually check for the Star Chips, she could hear the small items crash against the rest of the case and it was good enough for her. No harm done.

Amy skipped school that day. After having a nice breakfast with Téa and her parents, they walked together for a little while before the two broke off. She really didn't feel like being there for the Yugi, Tristan, Joey, Amy awkward reminisce of yesterday. So, when they approached Yugi's house to pick him up on the way by, she broke away saying she would meet them at school.

And never went.

Instead, Amy kept herself busy doing miscellaneous things, such as going back to Yugi's house to change into her old clothes and get her card fanny pack, – until 9:30 at night. There's no need for me to lollygag around that time in between. As a wise man once said, "Hey, stop developing your characters. We have card games to play."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"Attention all duelists. Welcome to this event, sponsored by Industrial Illusions." the goon on the boat shouted to the crowd of kids. Excited chatter came from the group. There were three men just standing up there on the boat, looking as greasy and emotionless as possible. The one in the middle, the one with outrageous hair was talking. "You received with your invitation the Star Chips that will grant you entry into the contest."

Almost everyone was here young. Future tournaments would have individuals of all ages, adults to young children. Surgeons to monkey trainers. But this tournament, this one was crowded from head to toe with teenagers. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not approving the whole surgeon being duelist thing. I think it's one of the stupidest concepts in the world – watch as I cut this organ open with my left hand a play a trap card with my right.) And almost every single kid had the same expression on their faces.

They all thought that they would win the three million. They thought would gain the title of "King of Games". They all thought that they were the main characters. They were all sorely mistaken.

It was funny to Amy, as she watched the crowd of children, she could point to each person and say, "You lost, you lost, and you did too." Everyone here was a nameless side character who was only put into the picture to make the tournament seem legit. Yet, when they were around her like this, Amy realized that they were real people, with real lives. They were important in their own stories. But for the story she was in, they might as well been grey blobs.

"You're all elite, invited by us after close observation of you in your past Duel Monsters contests." he shouted at the crowd.

"Oh good," Amy muttered under her breath, "way to show you're not a creep Pegasus." None of the other contestants paid a lick of attension to what she said.

"You each have a fair and equal chance to win." he continued, which everyone really believed. "It all comes down to how well you've chosen your cards and how well you play. Now duelists, come across the ocean. And enter the Duelist Kingdom."

The children began to line up. Amy was the sixth person in line. She had her glasses case in hand, waiting patiently for her turn. When she reached the top of the line, Pegasus's goon-for-hire stood behind a pink table with a clipboard, saying "Present your Star Chips." like he had every other kid in line so far. And of course Amy was confident the process was going to go just as smoothly.

She shook her glasses case, feeling slightly cocky. It felt in a way like she owned the show, that she was an important character of this story. Of course she would be able to get on, why bother checking. "Right in here." Then, the metaphorical weight came down, Amy opened her glasses case and held her glasses between her fingers, searching the case. There were a few ten yen coins, but that was it. No Star Chips.

Amy froze, her cocky buzz totally killed.

The goon repeated himself. "Present your Star Chips."

"Um." she looked up at him. "Right, hold your freaking horses." Amy put the glasses back and closed then case, then drove her hands into her pockets. "I've got them here somewhere."

No matter how much fishing she did in her pockets, there were no Star Chips to be found.

The man seemed to understand this by watching her fumble around. "No Star Chips, no entry."

"Look buddy, I have Star Chips."

He repeated himself dryly.

Embarrassed, and not knowing what else to do, she argued back. "I told you I have them, okay? I need to get on that ship!" Her voice was starting to raise.

Like clockwork, the goon that was standing guard and the other one behind the table took hold of her arms. They were taking her away by force. Amy's embarrassment was quickly turned to frustration. "Hey!" She struggled. "Let me go! I need to get on that boat! I swear to gwad – ow – watch the underarm buddy!" Despite her struggles and now angry screaming, she remained locked in the strong grip of the two goons.

As a last desperate act, now being hauled away, the other contestants stepping aside and starring at her, Amy yelled back to the table, "Call your boss! I'm in this tournament! Pegasus will tell you, you have to let me on board." She tried to use her feet as frictional resistance, but to no avail. "I'm telling you, call Pegasus! Ask about Amy!" Then they dropped her.

Whisperers spread from the line behind her. It would only be a mater of moments before the gossip about a "short girl throwing a fit to get on the boat" got to the back of the line. Yugi and Joey would probably put two and two together in a short about of time. So, Amy got on her feet, remembering that she still had another chance to board. And she didn't have the time to lose gallivanting around, or else she would miss that opportunity too.

For a ship meant for forty passengers and an few employees, it was unnecessarily large. Just like Pegasus to show off for unnecessary reasons. The man may be mad with grief right now, having hatched (with some assistance) a scheme to cheat that grief, but his flamboyant personality couldn't help but seep through the cracks here and there. And those little threads of over compensation might be enough to give a sliver of hope that Pegasus could recover from this brief moment of insanity. Which, both you and I know he will. Amy too, she knows as well. But the little signs here and there made the difference between knowing something, and physically seeing something.

On a less glamorous note, that flashy size was making it difficult to be confident that Amy would make it to the loading unit in time.

The loading unit was opposite the line, in the bow, which meant she didn't have to go passed Yugi and Joey. The bad news is, she would have to come off the port, and do a circle around, because the men loading were facing the line of kids. She couldn't just waltz over and slide behind the cargo. Téa and Tristan were sneaking around from the other side of the crates right now, and she would have to do the same. Amy would have to do it quickly, she didn't have a whole lot of time.

There was commotion that interrupted her thought process. Guards, yelling. A British accent. Oh good gwad, a British accent.

"Wait, please, you're making a mistake..."

The line of kids was watching as the guards dragged a struggling Bakura away from the loading sight. _Oh hell no_. This was not happening.

One of the goons tightened his grip on Bakura, saying, "Only official contestants allowed on board."

Amy smacked her forehead, unable to believe this was still happening. This was suppose to happen to Joey, but she had arranged around that. Somehow fate still rearranged itself so they still had to deal with some version of the event. Only this time none there were no Star Chips to bail Bakura out. If this was the way destiny wanted to play, Amy would play it's game, no matter how frustrated it made her in the end.

Bakura blinked, looking desperate. He shifted his head from one goon to another. "B-But I am an official contestant."

His lie had come out sloppy, making Amy, the queen of lies, feel insulted and ashamed for the 4Brit. He was not going to be able to talk his way out of this on his own, and Bakura _had _to come to Duelist Kingdom. Yami Bakura had to steal Pegasus's Eye. He needed to get on that boat as much as she did, if not more. So Amy backtracked, running after the three, when they were far enough away from the line of kids. There was still the possibility of Yugi and Joey getting involved, which she wanted to avoid if at all possible. So, Amy would have to wrap this up quickly. She only way she could think to do it was sell herself out.

"Heeeeeyyy!" The men turned around at the sound of her yell. She made sure the goons-for-hire could see her waving her arm rapidly. "Let go of my brotherrrrrr."

At first, Bakura's eyes widened, showing a momentary lapse of worry. Something about the word 'brother' seemed to upset him. He shot his head to see who had said that, and his face transitioned to surprise. "Amy?" He couldn't make it any clearer that this was unexpected.

"You're that girl who tried to sneak through the line." one of the goons commented.

Amy growled at the fact that they considered her honest attempt to enter the tournament 'sneaking', "I was not sneaking."

The other goon cut in, ignoring her comment. "So you two were trying to sneak on together." Again with the term sneaking. It was more of a statement then a question.

"Let go of my brother." she repeated heatedly.

Like the goons by the entrance table, these two men were completely in sync with each other. They simultaneously let Bakura's arms go. The one on the right was the next to speak, saying, "Get out of here, and don't come back." Between their suits, sunglasses, and frighting tones, they were an intimating sight. But Amy was too mad to be intimated.

She grabbed onto Bakura's wrist and started walking away, nearly dragging him. It took him a minute to regain his footing.

"Who wants to go to this fakey tournament anyways." she grumbled back at the goons that were watching the two of them walk away. When the goons turned there back, Amy started to veer around slightly.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

By the time they had gotten far enough away to quickly circle back to the cargo, Amy had realized two things. Firstly, if she had left Bakura alone, he probably would still have gotten on board, only he would sent half the staff and who knows how many of the contestants to the Shadow Realm in the process. Secondly, fate was the biggest [4filter] she had ever met.

The two stood behind one of loading crates, whispering to each other. When questioning how Bakura got caught, he answered with, "I was trying to sneak in through the lower hatches."

Amy let out a quiet sign. "Lower hatches?"

Bakura responded with a shrug and a whisper. "I don't know, something inside me said it would work."

The female attempted to recall the scene as it should have been before she began altering things. The lower hatches, huh? She believed that was where Joey was caught trying to sneak in. There may have been the slightest (most likely) possibility that in the original timeline, Bakura might have been able to slip by while the goons were dealing with Joey.

"What about you," he questioned, "how did you get caught?"

"Hey, look schmuck (a term which she used in its pop culture form), I did not get caught. I was a legitimate contestant until sometime in the last week." she stuck her tongue out and whispered stubbornly. "I did not get caught, I was wrongfully kicked out, there's a difference."

"Wrongfully kicked out?"

Her face lowered in momentary annoyance. "Why must you turn everything I say into a question?"

"You say a lot of very strange things."

Amy glanced over the side of the crate, choosing to ignore that comment, looking at the employees waving and shouting. The man turned around and motioned to his coworkers. She recognized that the two of them would have a chance to sneak by them in mere moments.

"What are we doing?" Ryo Bakura murmured, emphasizing the world "are".

In response she glanced up at him, "Copying someone else's idea." Amy grabbed onto the collar of his green undershirt, pulling him through the maze of loading crates. Tristan and Téa were sitting cozy in one of the loading crates by now. Bakura flailed his arms around trying to keep balance with Amy's awkward dragging.

But, for the convenience of plot and pacing, the two parties smashed into each other. By two parties I mean Amy and Bakura bumped smack into Téa's back, who bumped into Tristan, who in the end resulted in them all falling on the ground. Amy wasn't expecting them to be standing there, and likewise, they weren't expecting her. So, the played the name game on recovering from impact.

You know, the name game. It went something like this:

Looking up, Téa gasped as she, recognized the two attackers. "Bakura?"

"Oh, Téa." he responded. All four starred at each other.

Tristan cued in next, "Amy?"

"We are not doing this." Amy cut in and shoved her companions into the loading crate.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"What are you guys doing here?" Téa whispered.

The crate started to shift around as it was lifted onto the boat. Tristan "sh"ed them as the group fought to regain balance.

As soon as the crate as set down, the conversation continued. Bakura answered for Amy, as she was preoccupied with whispering her modified profanities at Tristan. "We were looking for a way on the ship, Amy must of spotted you guys and we followed you."

Amy turned away from Tristan upon hearing her name. "Something like that." she muttered.

Téa then directed her question at Amy, now having the other female's attention. "This was your big plan?"

The other reversed the question, "This was _yours_?"

"Shht!" went Tristan again, "If you guys keep talking they're going to find us."

"They are not going to find us." Amy countered quietly. "And when the boat starts moving, they won't give a crap whether there are stowaways or not." As if to go along with her statement, the sound of the boat's movement filled the outside. The once sound of machinery was changed to the rattling noises of sailing. Opening the cargo crate, the female let in a bust of air. Not much air, mind you, as they were still surrounded by other loading crates that made a small maze if space in between each other. But the scent of the ocean still loomed, even if it didn't blow rapidly though their faces.

From behind her, Tristan ripped it shut again. He didn't close it all the way, as it would have slammed loudly, but he did close it enough that the four of them were still hidden. And enough to make a physical statement that he thought Amy was wrong. "What do you think you're doing?" he muttered. Amy gave him a hard stare in response. She could still see it, he didn't trust her, not for a second. He had the same face on that he wore on the roof the day before when he questioned the female's intentions. And the same tone of voice too. He was wearing suspicion and distrust like it was in style.

_'He thinks I'm trying to get us caught!' _she thought to herself, baffled, _'Oh frig no.' _

"Look." she opened it again, "I don't know what your problem is, but stay cooped up in here and contemplate your issues by yourself." Amy growled before walking out. "And if any of the rest of you happen to come to memory that you aren't some kind of wanted fugitives 'hiding from the law', come find me on the ship." She closed the door gently, as noiselessly as possible, holding back the desire to slam it.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

The dark ocean waters lay below. Leaning on the railing, Amy could hardly feel the boat move through ocean. The female had her arms folded around each other, letting the limbs sit on the railing while she laid her chin on them. Between her and the height of the railing, this was surprisingly comfortable.

Amy lifted her arm up and rotated her wrist around, looking at the bracelet. The trinket was so perfect save for the jagged pieces at the bottom, almost as if something had been there and broke off. Without this seemingly worthless object, she wouldn't be here. What would she be doing if she wasn't here? The female had a hard time imagining it. Any ideas that popped into her head were soon blocked by thoughts of the present situation.

_'Do you regret coming with me?'_ Amiee form appeared next to her counterpart. She was leaning over the edge of the ship, starring out silently into dark ocean below. Now that she had made her grand exit and thrown a fit, Amy realized how little she had to do right now. Somewhere on this ship, Mai Valentine was making her first official appearance by flirting with Yugi and turning Joey down. Somewhere else on the ship, Weevil Underwood was being a real creep starring at all the amateurs preparing for the battles ahead.

Amiee's sudden burst of contact caught Amy by surprise. So much so she jumped, turning to the direction is came from. She was never going to get used to the spirit's spontaneous habits. _'Holy crap! Way to give me a freaking heart attack.'_

The ancient spirit just starred at Amy, guilt written all over her face. Amy sighed at the expression, '_No Amiee, my mind was just drifting.' _She quickly switched subjects._ 'It's about time you showed up. Where were you the last hour when I was getting on the ship? I could have used some advice.'_

Amiee's response was surprisingly harsh. _'I gave you my advice before. You didn't listen.' _By harsh, I mean a scolding tone that was still squeaky. You should know by now that it is some hard core expressionism coming from the shy female. The transparent form shook her head.

The other female straightened out, moving away from the railing. _'Are you back on the Joey video tape thing again?! Come on, there was no harm done, alright? Get off my back about it!'_ Instead of leaning on it, Amy simply put her palm on the metal to run her hand on it as she walked.

_'Bakura wasn't suppose to have contact with them yet.'_

And Amy was taken aback,_ 'It wasn't my fault okay, it just happened. It was ether I get him involved now or he get stuck on shore.'_

_'I need you to understand that these things are a chain. One small change will link to other events.'_

They maneuvered along the edge of the ship. Finally, the two reached a door that kept them from going any farther. _'I get how time travel works okay, my parents lived off of mother freaking science fiction.'_

_'This isn't time travel.' _They opened the door, Amy not thinking much about it and continuing to the interior of the ship. She was too focused on the argument to consider the surroundings.

_'It's the same idea!' _Amy's face dropped in an exasperated expression. _'I can't believe we are having this argument right now! What, do you of all people not trust me either?! Tristan I can handle, but come freaking on. I'm doing this for you!' _

If you guys haven't noticed by now, focus is one of Amy's fatal flaws. It's beyond her power to be able to both have a conversation and focus on the task at hand simultaneously. You've seen this in instances such as when she ran (figuratively speaking) into Bakura at the convince store, or when she ran (literally this time) into Bakura at school. Our OC lead is – as bluntly put - terrible at multitasking. Her focus will automatically shift to the most daunting task. In the case of walking and talking, taking takes the lead.

(There are exceptions, of course, like when there's some intense emotion in the way, like say, embarrassment or anger! By the end of this story, you'll have enough information to supply a Wiki Page.)

Thus incidents like this happen. She lets her guard down long enough to do the Mary Sue clichés. Amy walked into the common room, where cards were being traded, without hardly realizing she had done it. It wasn't until a certain blond, with a big goofy grin, excitedly come up to her face and asked "Wanna trade?!" did she jump in surprise, yelp - as the male realized who he had come face to face with - punch him under his jaw, and realize where she was. The male went flying backwards, the few trading cards he was holding in his hand went flying as well.

"Joey?!" she gasped.

He lay on the floor with his leg twitching. "You coulda just said no."

Amy's response was less apologetic than it should have been. "Well don't get all up in my face!"

Then, the female realized what this meant. She had come in contact with the one group she really wanted to stay away from. And she cursed herself.

Yugi, holding on to his bag straps, ran over to them from across the room. "Amy? What are you doing here?"

"I-I'm, ah, a contestant." she blinked hesitantly, still trying to recover her wits. Her body turned on an angle, and she leaned back slightly, an exaggeratedly flustered look on her face. Imagine one of those huge anime sweat drops on the side of her head. There we go, you see it now, the perfect picture.

"Oh! Why didn't you just say so before?" Yugi asked.

_'Because I wanted to get by without actually dueling.'_ she thought to herself, the corners of her mouth twitching.

Joey saved her from coming up with a response. He brought the attention back to himself, jumping up from the ground and getting in between them. "What about me? I just got assaulted here!"

Her posture went back to normal, getting onto a subject she could talk about. "Quit your complaining. You did it to yourself."

One of the other kids in the rooms walked over to where a card had landed. He was ether not paying attention to the situation or was a complete jerk, because the kid felt down on the ground and picked it up saying, "Hey look, free cards."

This took Joey's attentions elsewhere, as he focused his rambunction on the poor nameless teen. "Get your paws off of that you creep. That's mine!" And Yugi and Amy were free to continue their conversation, just the two of them.

_'My king's friends,'_ Amiee said, unable to stop herself from laughing, _'are very fun.'_

_'Someone has to think so.'_

"Aren't you going to trade too?" Yugi questioned, noticing she seemed to have no interest in the other players. He hadn't seen her take out her deck since the night they met.

Just as he expected, she brushed the idea off without second thought. "No need for it, I've got everything I need for this dumb event. Why would I get all this way here and still need to improve my deck?" She literally waved her hand in the air to be as literal as possible.

Yugi just shrugged. "Weevil said the same thing not too long ago."

Amy cringed at the thought of anything she did or said being compared to Weevil Underwood. She had to remind herself that he had just meet Weevil and didn't know any better. Or, at least she told herself that was the case, fearing the comparison was more accurate then she was willing to accept.

All she could think to say in return was, "You met Weevil Underwood?"

"He's here for the tournament." Yugi explained, as unnecessary as it was, "I'm sure he's still nearby if you want to meet him."

The female cringed again, "You mistook my tone. No, I'd really rather not. As a matter of fact, the thought of him is making it stuffy in here." She got behind Yugi and started to push him out the doorway. "Let go get some fresh air."

Yugi protested this saying, "What about Joey?"

Amy just stuck her tongue out in response. "He'll catch up with us when his brain has caught up to him."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Running the cards through her fingers, Amy examined every inch of Yugi's deck. She stopped at 'Kuriboh'. "This beauty right here."

Yugi was leaning on the railing, the breeze making his yellow bangs bounce back and forth genitally. "'Kuriboh' is really helpful in a pinch, but I don't think I could pick it as the most useful card in grandpa's deck. All of the cards are useful." He was looking to side, at his female companion waving the monster card around.

"Duh." she put the card right in front of her face, "I never said it was the most useful."

"You said you were going to show me what the best card in the deck was."

Amy wagged her pointer finger in his face. "Personality, personality! People say that 'Dark Magician Girl' is suppose to be your Lolita card, but that's a load of horse crap. 'Kuriboh' is the prefect representation of the underdog cutie, and he's tiny and fluffy to boot."

Yugi wondered who those "people" could possibly be, but kept the thought to himself. He figured it's probably an answer better left untold. From what he knew of Amy, the answer couldn't possibly be good. Meanwhile, she placed 'Kuriboh' back in the deck where it was before, and was careful not to shuffle the order. If she did, Amiee would surely give her another scolding.

She continued to shift through the deck, stopping at the five Exodia pieces, positioned one after another. Behind them, there was a curious looking monster. Amy pulled the card out from the rest, and held it up to Yugi. "What is this?"

"That's the 'Time Wizard'."

Then Amy put it down on the table, separate from the rest of the deck, and slid it across the surface with her index finger. "I doesn't belong here. You should find a new home for it." Yes, Amy was aware how stuck up she sounded. It was intentional.

He picked it up and looked the card from top to bottom. "I don't know what you mean it 'doesn't belong here'. It's a part of my deck."

She waved him off. "I doesn't suit the rest of your deck. Trust me, there's a better home for it."

Joey joined them moments after Amy spoke, holding up his four new cards. "Yug!" he showed them the cards like a kid with a good report card, "I got some good card trading in."

"Hey let me see `em." Yugi examined the cards, excited for his friend. "'Salamandra', and a 'Kunai with Chain'? 'Baby Dragon' and 'Shield and Sword'. Great! With these new magic cards combined with your monsters, you'll have a real strong deck." Looking at 'Baby Dragon', Yugi got the idea that something about what Amy said made sense. He thought of the 'Time Wizard' he was holding in his hand.

"All right!" Joey beamed, satisfied with himself. "So now I'm ready to win every duel I play!"

Once again, Amy could just feel the over confidence oozing out of the blond. Yugi could as well, only his reaction to it was far more dependable then Amy's. While Amy sent him a hard glare, Yugi explained, "I think you're going to find it's a bit harder then that Joey. As a matter of fact... here."

Yugi handed him the 'Time Wizard'. There was a part of him that really felt like the card would be better off in Joey's hands. "Add this to your deck. It can be helpful in a tight spot."

"Wow," Amy interrupted, "wonderful, great, you do so much for him Yugi, and he just can't believe it." She muttered these words, running her hands through her hair. It was slightly embarrassing for her to be in the middle of this touching bonding moment. Honestly, she just wanted the scene to be over. They both just starred at her, and the female realized she had left the conversation in a odd place.

Flushing, Amy grabbed the card and looked at it again, before handing it off to the blond. "Seriously though, it's a good card. Especially for someone as lucky as you." The female muttered, looking away. She pushed the card in his direction.

The blond took 'Time Wizard' in awe. "You think I'm lucky?"

She eyed him sarcastically in response. "You got the opportunity to win three million to save your sister. Yeah, I think you're lucky."

For a minute, the mood was good. The mood was assuring. The three duelists shared an aura of confidence. Amy flushed harder, once she realized she had fallen into that mood. For this first time in a long while, she actually felt like she was part of a trio. A special kind of trio; the kind where all three individuals were equals. So many times, these groups were formed with one person who was greater or lesser than the others. Someone gets left behind, and someone speeds ahead.

And sure, Yugi would go on to do great things and save the world. Joey would never be too far behind him. But now, right at that moment, there was a looming nostalgia.

But the moment was broken by a little bug. The voice of that bug cut through the air. "Ah, we meet again."

Amy's brow wrinkled in disgust. "Agh, Weevil." Seeing him walk over pulled Amy right out of that warm nostalgia and back into the real world.

The green haired youth walked past Amy without acknowledging her presence in the least bit. Similarly, he walked past Joey as he didn't exist either. No, Weevils sol focus on Yugi Muto.

"I thought you had gone back to your room." Yugi mentioned politely, attempting to make conversation.

Underwood settled at the railing, looking out at the ocean. "I was thinking about the tournament and decided I need some fresh air."

"Funny. I didn't think cockroaches needed fresh air to survive." Amy hissed in a low grade tone.

Soft sea wind blew past the group, riddled with a salty scent and an ominous warning. As if to confirm that warning, Weevil Underwood spoke again. "Ahh, the evening wind sure feels nice." And for a moment he let it blow through his horridly ugly green trench.

Personal fashion opinions aside, all was silent until Weevil was done taking in the breeze. He turned around, the sea to his back, and said, "So, did you trade for any good cards Yugi?"

Yugi shook his head and placed his hand on the ancient container. "No. I'm going to duel with the cards I brought along with me."

"I figured as much. You used the 'Exodia' card in your duel with Kiba, right? Those are the strongest cards of them all!"

If Weevil had brown eyes, I would say he was up to his eyes in [4filter]. However, due to an unfortunate difference in character design, it is not an expression I can accurately use. At the very least the irony wouldn't be the same.

And Yugi was taking the conversation in. "And really rare!" Amy saw his naïve, polite face, and breathed out a frustrated breath. It was all too clear to her now, how Yugi managed to fall for such a sleazeball trick. He was so kind-hearted, caring, his first instinct would never be that this stranger would want to hurt him. And at that moment she wished bitterly that he wasn't any of those things. It would have made everything so much easier. How easily she forgets, that same trusting persona was the reason she was standing next to him on the deck today.

That same caring personality was the thing that let her in through the doors of Kame Game that night.

"Could...I..." Weevil started, his voice huffing in between words, "possibly...see those legendary cards."

"I don't see why not." Yugi answered with a smile.


	8. Chapter Seven: Forbidden One in the Sea

[On Track]/[Extra/Non Extra]

Disclaimer: I'm out of creative disclaimers. Bite me human. Oh, that's right, you can't. Because I'm Text. Ha. That stinks, doesn't it.

Narrator's Note: I'm back with a new chapter. This chapter resolves the 'Exodia' event with Weevil, and **finally** finishes the first freaking box set. Now I'm not volume two.

Also, some of you returning humans may have notice that the title of this story has gained the subtitle of "Duelist Kingdom". This is because in all the time I've spent not slaving for you humans (i.e. not updating), I've spent realizing how freaking long this freaking story was going to be. When my contract for telling this story started, I honestly thought I would be farther by now. I thought I would at least be to PaniK by now. But, the chapters have seemed to almost write themselves putting us at seven chapters (nine counting the two prologue), detailing only three episodes and one duel thus far. This is mainly due to all of the extra content (and admittedly,_ some _may be due to my irritable attitude). On top of the pacing, there are two sections in Beautiful Items that were not in the anime. It's become clear that I would fit the enter story into one segment, or else the poor thing would be far too cluttered. So, I'm going to have to split it up by sections. See the bottom Narrator's Note for more details.

In this chapter, Amy mends her relationship with Tristan, sort of. I've been trying to relate Amy's relationships in stages. Firstly, they of course accepted Amy from the get-go (Tristan too until the Grandpa incident), like they do for everyone, calling her their friend. Amy, on the other hand, felt as if they were more of just acquiescence or classmates. The even Téa wasn't sure of Amy after a while, because Tristan didn't trust her. But, now because of this ordeal, they've officially accepted Amy, and Amy's begging to warm up to them. I'm trying to give the impression that rather than accepting Amy as a friend, she feels like the group's younger sister. She can certainly act the part of the middle school brat. They haven't really accepted her as equal yet. So she's kind of working her way up into the circle. This "kid of the group" perception is also why Téa would even think to suggest switching clothes with Yugi, rather than becoming frustrated and overprotective.

Also in this chapter I do a little more info dumping on Amy's ability to know the future. Not too much, just stating what I had previously implied.

Before I forget, there's a "Golden Time" reference in there for anyone who can spot it. I'm feeling benevolent today, so I put one in.

Did I ever mention, that I know Sam Riegel voices for Tristan at this point, but when ever I picture him talking I just can not help but imagine all of his lines here coming out of Greg Abbey's mouth. Especially the roof scene a couple chapters back.

Can anyone think up a good voice actress that would fit Amy and Amiee?

Also, as usual, I'm suppose to say here, "rate and review"... but it's not like _I_ care. Not in the least bit. Nope. HA. Who would? Not...me...nope.

* * *

**Chapter Seven - Forbidden One in the Sea: "_'Everything happens for a reason.'_"**

Alternate Titles: Amiee's Point, Yugi's Jacket, Téa Wants You to know She Watches Her Diet Very Carefully

* * *

"Just be careful with them." Yugi continued, "Okay?" The protagonist pulled out the cards from his deck, and handed them to Weevil Underwood. Amy watched the cards trade hands, her eyes following the printed paper. "Here."

Weevil didn't leave any sign that he intended to follow Yugi's request. His glasses just shimmered devilishly to express his thoughts, and eyes looked at hungryly at the cards. Seeing them in his grubby hands made the female tense. She wished that this would just be over already. Waiting was killing her.

"So these are the cards to summon 'Exodia'..." Weevil's words drifted off, like an idea had just come to mind.

Amy realized how antsy she was, and it hit her about what she was antsy for. She was waiting, eagerly mind you, for Yugi's belongings to get thrown overboard into the sea. Waiting for her friend to loose his rare cards, and heck, almost his best friend, forever. She was overcome by a wave of guilt and frustration.

If it isn't one problem with this girl its another.

While our OC was having inner conflicts, Weevil was shifting his body, admiring the cards. "For a long time I've bee trying to come up with some kind of strategy to finally beat these cards."

Amy braced herself. _'Here it comes.'_

"But I couldn't come up with anything."

_'What will you do?'_ the girl's subconscious screamed. All she would need is a one mere second worth of willpower.

"Until just this moment." Weevil finished his sentence, a sly look crossing his face.

This response surprised Yugi. Instead of explaining himself, Weevil quickly spun around and headed to the railing.

At that moment, she decided she would do nothing. _'Nothing.' _the female thought uneasily, _'Nothing at all.' _She was going to let the time stream take its course. That was the right thing to do, wasn't it?

Too late the short protagonist realized what the antagonist meant to do. He tried to stop him, but was too slow. Weevil raised his arms and sent the card flying down into the sea. And before Amy could change her mind, the second had passed.

"Say goodbye to 'Exodia'!"

"No!" Yugi and Amy called, Amy now rushing to the railing to watch 'Exodia' float down. The cards hit the waves, floating on top, soon to be weighed below the surface. Joey came up on the side of them, gasping at the sight.

_'I take it back!'_ Amy shouted in her mind, _'I want to do something! I take it back!'_ But time did not reverse itself for her. Instead it marched on, the cards floating further and further away. Anger exploded from the female, and she took it out on the only medium she could.

"Chwilod duon*!" Amy reached to the side viciously, grabbing onto Weevil's trench coat.

The breeze blew past them, and Weevil looked to the side, with a sickeningly satisfied expression on his face. He cackled a bit. The tail of the bug's trench coat lifted in the breeze, Amy's hair blew in front of her face. Salty air from the ocean still roamed around them, but the group could hardly sense it at this point, too much was taking up their stimuli already. "Now there's no one who can challenge me."

The greedy little snake in the grass. "You'll have no one to challenge when I toss your deck in after 'Exodia'!" Amy fumed, tightening her grip on the duelist.

Yugi was devastated, beginning to process what was going on. He could only watch his cards float away, never to be seen again. Not just his cards, his grandfather's cards. The rare cards the old man trusted Yugi with. The boy rushed past his friends, desperate to keep the cards in sight. Joey shifted to face Weevil and Amy, "Why you!"

Meanwhile, Weevil wasn't the least bit intimated by Amy's threat. His expression didn't change as he spoke, "No one will stand in the way of me winning this tournament."

"No one will be able to find you at the bottom of the sea." The words came out as angry and honest as they were intended. Her eyes expressed how much she meant it, coated in hate and frustration, emitting the sincerer desire to throw him overboard. Her emotions were far from her control.

The smile washed off of Weevil's face. However, instead of being replaced with fear or understanding, his mouth shadowed disappointment. The boy's eyes were still hidden behind the glare of his glasses, yet somehow, one could tell that they had changed. His mouth began to forum words. "I could easily crush you, but you wouldn't be worthy to be squashed under my shoe." One eye peaked out from behind the glare, one cold challenging eye.

"I'd like to see you try." she replied, unable to stop herself from dancing to this tango.

No more words were exchanged between them, due to both the fact that was nothing else to be said, and that a sudden word prompted Amy to let Weevil go. Well, it wasn't so much a word as it was a name.

"Joey! Don't!"

Amy's head snapped towards the railing, her grip on the other duelist loosening, soon letting go altogether. Yugi was leaning over the railing, calling to his friend in the sea below. Once again, the female rushed to the edge to look into the sea. None of them noticed Weevil's dark stare as he left.

"Joey, what in the frig are you doing?!" Amy leaned as well, just in time to see Joey's feet disappear into the water.

Yugi was panicked, waiting for his friend to emerge. He called out for him, asking hopelessly for Joey to reveal his location, or to see him back on the surface. Finally, the moment arrived where the blond popped his head out of the water gasping for air. "I promise you, I'll get them Yugi!" Joey shouted up to the deck, water splashing in his face. Seeing him alive, for now, and hearing the proclamation brought Yugi little comfort. His friend appeared to be struggling to fight the waves below.

"Joey, they're not worth drowning over!" Yugi called back.

"Forget the cards," Amy joined in now, "and just focus on swimming!"

The blond ignored their calls and began reaching through the water for the cards. As he took hold of the first piece of 'Exodia', Joey spoke back to them. "No way! Yugi's always doing for me, it's about time I did for him."

"Extreme much?!" Amy shouted down, looking around for the emergency rope ladder. "Next time buy him a freaking Hallmark card or something." Beyond Yugi, the girl finally saw the ladder, and in a blink of an eye she had her fingers wrapped around it.

Below the situation was becoming gradually worse. Although Joey managed to get his hands on the second trading card, it was becoming increasingly clear what he was loosing the battle. The water pulled him under several times, and it took powerful thrashing to get Joey onto the surface.

Yugi was watching his friend, one of his only, possibly his closest friend, drown to death. As the blond's struggle increased, so did Yugi's. The weight of being helpless to save his friend began to pile own on him, until, seeing Joey go under once more, became too heavy. Yugi could no longer watch, he had to take action. So Yugi took hold of the railing himself, and used it pull into the air and also dive into the blackness below. Neither of the boys were thinking rationally. Amy saw the action in her peripherals. Catching him was impossible, and even if she had, the momentum would have pulled them both down. She had to focus on getting the ladder down, she knew that. But Amy reacted all the same, stepping into the spot Yugi had been standing milliseconds before, reaching over the railing, and catching only air. "Yugi!" the female called, her eyes now wide.

But Yugi's body had already been engulfed by water. Even though she knew she had to get back to ladder, as it was the only chance of rescuing them, her body remained frozen. She was afraid, afraid he wouldn't come back up. Her muscles wouldn't let her move until she saw his face come of through the darkness, her eyes were glued to the spot.

When he finally floated up from the depths of the sea, Amy fumbled back to the ladder. "Come on, come on, come on!" she curse quickly, her hands trembling. There was only three people she could call for help now. "Téa, Tristan, Bakura! Help!" She finally readied the rope ladder and tossed it over the edge, calling for help once again. Joey was far too tale and wet for her to be able to carry up the ladder alone, and she believed Yugi would have the same trouble, being just as small in stature and weak in muscle. They needed Tristan.

Surprisingly, and thankfully, the three came rather quickly. Because anime convenience is convenient. Tristan was at the head of the group, the other two following closely behind.

"What's wrong?!" Tristan answered.

"You're friends are drowning, that's what!"

Without another word, Tristan was on the ladder. Below, Yugi was just grasping onto the bottom rung, supporting an exhausted and barely conscious Joey. By the time Téa and Bakura had caught up, Tristan was halfway down, climbing at an incredible pace. In short phrases, Amy explained the situation to the other two, and Tristan reached the bottom. With some effort, Tristan hoisted his unconscious friend over his shoulder, which I assume is no small accomplishment. I hear human bodies are heavy and lengthy, making them difficult to support. Yet, I also hear this man lifts people up and carries them all the time. He must have some serious upper body strength.

Téa called to her friends below, meanwhile Bakura could only let out a relieved sigh. On the surface, the event looked as if it had come to an end. Still, our OC couldn't take her eyes off of the water. It still didn't feel right.

As Yugi was about to hoist himself up onto the emergency equipment, another waved piled over him, and when it cleared, Yugi had disappeared, pulled down into the ocean. Tristan and Amy were the first to notice, Amy gasping and Tristan grunting.

"Yugi!"

Tristan was in no position to follow his friend below the water to retrieve him. He could only think to get Joey to the top and then go in after him. He could only yell, "I'm coming for you Yugi!" Just as he finished talking, however, another body dropped past him, changing his plans quite a bit. Water splashed onto Tristan as the diver broke the surface. It was, of course, Amy. All it took to catch up with the sinking Yugi was a few freestyle strokes. Amy wrapped her hands around Yugi's underarm shifting him upwards. The water stung in her eyes, forcing her to close them and rely touch alone.

Amy paddled them upwards with her right arm, and held onto Yugi with the left. The two of them broke the surface, gasping for air. They both took one big breath and several small ones. Téa, from the deck, could be heard yelling down, "They're okay!"

The two short wet teens looked at each other, each grabbing onto to one side of the bottom rung. In between pants, Amy got out some well deserved sass. "Can...we...take a break now? Or do you...wanna try downing...again?"

This made Yugi smile meekly, and one by one they began climbing up the ladder.

.~~~~~~~~~~~.

Now everyone was safe and sound on the deck. Safe, sound, and half of them were really, really, wet. The group of six were still trying to catch their wits about what had just transpired. The cause of the commotion, 'Exodia the Forbidden One' was laying in between the group, sitting unimportant on the deck. Well, not all of 'Exodia'. Joey had only managed to grab a few pieces, not that they would be going back into Yugi's deck, as without the whole set, the cards were pretty much worthless.

Yugi, himself, was sitting down, taking a breather and relaxing, his panic and fear having now passed. Joey was on all fours, alive, conscious, but starring unhappily at the two 'Exodia' cards. Both were soaked and together make one impressive puddle of salty water on the deck.

"I'm sure glad you guys were there." Yugi said, turning to his friends.

Téa knelt down and put her hand on his shoulder. "When we heard Amy shouting across the ship, we knew something was wrong."

Amy herself was laying down next to Joey, exhausted and sprawled out, taking up a lot of space for her small bodily proportions. "Hey," she cut in, sounding sassy, but not sassy. Her voice was too tiered to get the kick she really needed. "I don't want to hear any talk about how loud my mouth is. Totally not in the mood."

Baukra, standing next to Tristan, had his hands behind his back, bending down a bit to be included in the conversation. "But Amy, it was your loud mouth that save everyone." He said 'loud mouth in the most polite, respectful fashion, as if not to use it as the insult Amy was intending.

Amy just closed her eyes at the response, wish for a nice hot shower and warm bed. If only they were already friends with Mai. She had both of those things right now. "Nah, even if I wasn't here, you guys would have gotten there in time."

Téa nodded. "That's right, we're a team. We'd always sick together." she responded reassuringly.

"We've always got your back." Tristan added. Yugi smiled.

Amy opened one eye to gaze at the canon characters. They thought she was trying be reassuring. How cute. No, Amy wasn't being comforting, she was being honest. I have said many times that Amy knows everything. Yet, I have, also many times, shown you that she was involved in situations she never saw coming, such as getting the lifeless Solomon Muto to the hospital. So, where's the medium here? Where does all knowing and no-knowing meet?

Maybe it's about time I explain, just a little. No, she isn't secretly some kind of self-insert. Amy was born in this world, and that's where she'll stay. But, she has the knowledge that a self-insert would. Once, under strange circumstances, she saw the entire anime of events play by. Every animated scene that you, as the reader and viewer, have seen, she watched as well. It was to never happen again, one time was all she had. Amy watched Yugi beat Pegasus, Yami beat Marik, Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi face off in the biggest shadow game the world had ever seen, and everything else in between.

Now, naturally, this vision was imperfect. As all people do, she had forgotten many of the details over time. Amy can remember who wins what duel and which plot point happens where , but the details have grown fuzzy. Take, for example, if I asked you to tell me, right now, what the third card Weevil plays in his upcoming duel with Yugi, I bet you couldn't tell me, could you? Moments when the camera fades away from the screen and the episode credits would come into your view, that is a black area that Amy hasn't seen. She only knows what you know.

The next scene Amy could recall was as the ship approached the island. That time hadn't come yet, leaving a blank spot in Amy's knowledge of the future. That's just how Amy's life had become. One second she was aware of how an event would transpire, and the next she was left as spontaneous as everyone else. Laying on the floor of the ship, in the puddle of sea water, the female could only gaze at the group in front of her with her one open eye. Ten minutes ago (three and a half pages or so in your time), the female had been stressing over the future. She had been anxious over knowing what would happen, disgusted at the fact that she didn't change it, and frustrated over the responsibility of keeping the vision she had a reality.

Despite the fact that she hadn't changed anything, the group turned out fine. They were all together, and even smiling. Maybe, just maybe, there was some merit to Amiee's words. Up until now, Amy felt the need to tweak the bad things, to take control of what she could. To help. But maybe the group didn't need help. They would be fine on their own, without her meddling.

So why was she beating herself up, always feeling guilty when she didn't take action, and being wrong when she did? Would it make her a terrible person to just relax a little?

Joey was still on his hands and knees, but moved his gaze up from the cards to Yugi. "I'm sorry I could get them back."

Yugi shook his head. "It's okay. It's not your fault, it's Weevils."

_'And mine.'_ Amy thought. _'That's still a fact. I can still take responsibility for it even if... even if I don't atone for it.'_

A voice whispered in Amy's ear. A surprising voice. It wasn't surprising because she had never heard it before, she knew the voice well – it was Amiee. What was surprising is that Amiee had actually come out of her soul room for this. _'Everything happens for a reason. I felt the same way as you so long ago, really I did. But I made a choice and I had to spend the rest of my years with that decision.'_

Amy nodded. She wondered if she too could make a choice and stick with it.

But until then...

"Speaking of which!" Amy didn't get up but instead starred hard at Joey, lifting only her head in his direction. "What the heck were you thinking? Didn't you realize we would have to rescue your sorry butt?"

Until she made that choice, she would have to keep moving along.

His face distorted as if to answer with a comical 'Yeah I didn't think of that.' Instead he shifted to sitting on his butt and pointing to himself saying, "I would have figured it out."

"Would you of? Oh lets see what you had in mind. I'll send you right back in and we'll watch your magnificent brain in action." she barked. "Because of you I'm soaked."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"Yeah, because you would have been just peachy on your own."

Bakura took his hands from behind his back and scratched the side of his face with his right index finger. "Amy, you aren't actually going to start arguing after all that?"

Tristan cut in next, to Amy's surprise. "Have you met Amy? Arguing is like her pastime."

Téa side-pointed to Amy and Joey with her thumb, who were both to the right of her. "And Joey is pigheaded enough to get sucked into it."

"Who are you calling pigheaded?" Joey's Brooklin rage replied.

"You, pig head." Téa reached her arm across, poking Joey's forehead and tipping him backwards. Then she turned her mother goose attention elsewhere. By elsewhere, I mean Yugi, who trying so hard to stay out of it. "And you. What were you thinking diving in after him instead of coming to get us?"

"I, um," Yugi tried to think of some excuse for the scolding then he recalled one simple fact, "I didn't even know you guys were here."

This caused Téa to cross her arms. "Then why didn't you come get us sooner, Amy, you knew we were around and where we were hiding." Amy only stuck her tongue out the female. "That's what I thought."

Amy dropped her head down again, closing her eyes, and just relaxed. She was tiered, and was ready to drift off to sleep even if it was in a puddle on a ship floor. "Meh."

"We should get back inside with the other duelists," Yugi suggested, "we've got a big day tomorrow. I'll be fighting for my grandpa and you'll be fighting for your sister."

Joey and Téa got up on that note, Joey still dripping with water. "Alright!"

The tall female nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."

Amy opened one eye again and starred at them, making the pffffffft noise. "Go without me, I'm staying right here." And she was seriously determined not to move.

Yugi shook his head, remembering to grab his deck from the table. "You can't do that. You'll catch a cold."

"Blah. Comfy." Was the females only response. She figured the others would leave, and she would rest here awhile until her wet clothes got chilly and then wander her way back to the others inside. In like an hour or two. She was in no rush.

However, the girl's plans were shockingly foiled when she felt herself being lifted up, potato sack style, and hoisted over a shoulder. "H-hey!" She blurted, opening her eyes and seeing Tristan, carrying her like store bought goods. "Put me down!"

"If you won't move, we'll move you!" he snickered. Amy flushed, wondering what happened to the Tristan that didn't trust her. Did the Weevil ordeal change that? Were they actually supposed to be friends now? He changed his opinion just because she called for help?

"I'm up, okay, now put me down!" Amy struggled, "You got me up, now stop it. I do not need your help. I'll go inside when I want."

"See?" Téa pointed out, "I told you, she's like a middle schooler."

Amy flushed harder. "Shut up you, I am not!"

.~~~~~~~~~~~.

Morning had broken through the seemly endless night, and on the near horizon, the outline of a landmass beyond that crystal blue sky became apparent. The sun was shining down on the large cruiser, and while it didn't do much to warm the morning up, it at least lit up the world. Last night the winds had been warm and salty, yet the winds this morning were cool and refreshing.

The group of protagonists stirred from their restless slumbers. One by one, each person made their way to the deck to view the ocean, and eventually the incoming island. Amy was the first to make her way up on the bow, unable to sleep well due to the chill of her wet clothes. She was rubbing her arms with her hands, trying to warm up for the morning. The others soon followed her.

"There it is." Amy muttered to Yugi as he joined her. "Duelist Kingdom."

The island looked large from this distance away. One could only imagine how it looked while standing on it. Yugi left his hands by his side as he gazed out into the scenery. Determination was plastered to his face, he knew the time was approaching. "We're almost there."

Joey joined them, soon followed by the minor character brigand. All six of them stood and watched the landmass approach.

"Man." Joey said, his hands in the pockets of his green coat. "This Duelist Kingdom looks like a pretty big place, Yugi." The wind was starting to warm up, blowing past the group, making their clothes and hair shift softly back and fourth. "Finding your grandpa is not gonna be easy."

Yugi's face didn't change, but he took his puzzle in hand. "Well, we gotta start somewhere..."

"That's the spirit." Amy grinned and turned her head towards Yugi. "Search and destroy, right?" Nobody laughed at her joke, but hey, at least she tried.

The boat pulled into the dock, and the anchor was let down into the sea. Contestants began lining up to leave, exiting the boat with the sharp eye of the goons-for-hire on them. They still looked rather intimidating, one night hadn't changed that. Matching suits, ties, and a constancy of sunglasses made them all look like they were Super Spy Ken Dolls. Joey pointed them out to the group from the railing.

Kids disembarked in an "orderly fashion" just as they were told to do, no one pushed their eternal rivals into the sea on the way down. That was always a good thing. Boring, but a good thing. While all was going smoothly, it was clear that some of the group were on their toes about the Goon-Kens. Tristan leaned over to Téa, a thought coming to mind.

"Hey Téa. What if one of those security guys finds out that we're both stowaways?" His eyes shifted to the Goon-Kens and then back to Téa. Her eyelids just dropped. This conversation was already going south. "We oughta just play it safe and swim back."

Mother Goose – er, I mean Téa - responded with an appropriate reaction to the otherwise ridiculous suggestion. "We're in the middle of nowhere, lamebrain!" Tristan backed away from the yelling woman slowly, seemly not totally believing her. "If you can just try to act normal, we'll be okay."

While this was going on, Bakura lifted his hand and placed it on is chin, thinking. After Mother Goose finished her less than angelic scolding, he spoke up. "That might work for you two, but I'm not so sure about me and Amy."

"Why not?" Joey asked.

Amy grumbled, realizing she might have to agree with the man she hated so much. "He's got a point. Our entrance onto the ship wasn't exactly...incognito if you know what I mean." The female crossed her arms, avoiding Bakura's nods.

"They already know our faces from when they caught us sneaking on the first time." he explained.

The OC eyed him darkly, once again detesting the phrase 'sneaking'. "For the last time, I was not sneaking. _You_ were sneaking. I had to go and save your butt."

Yugi looked the most confused. "But Amy, I thought you said you were a constant."

"I am... or, er, I was. I lost my Star Chips and didn't realize it before trying to get on the boat. It's complicated."

Yugi's face changed to thoughtful for a second, and he put his hands on his pocket. He was about to say something else when he was cut off by Ryo Bakura. "So, what do you think we should do? They already know what we look like. Should we put on disguises of some sort."

Amy also hadn't noticed Yugi's attempt to speak, so she continued on with the conversation. "Did you miss the 'in the middle of nowhere' thing."

"We could swap clothes." he suggested.

"With who? Does it look like I fit into anyone's sizes?" Amy muttered. "It's not like me and Téa can just swap outfits! Plus, your hair is freaking blinding white! Even if you changed clothes, I think they would notice."

Téa lost her perception of amusement, a blush creeping across her face."What are you saying exactly? That I'm too big for you?"

The boys gathered to one side, away from the girls. They lined up, wanting to watch, but smart enough to keep their distance.

"I'm not calling you fat if that's what you're implying." Amy put her hands on her hips. "I'm just saying our measurements don't exactly size up. You're too... over measure-y."

The taller female crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and turned away with a "hmp". "I'm not too 'over measure-y', you're just too 'under measure-y'."

The boys watched the conversation, none of them daring to move a muscle. Yet their eyes darted back and fourth between the two girls.

Feeling challenged about her small sizes, Amy brought out the big guns. It was on accident, it just kind of... slipped. "At least I'm undersized by genetics. You're measurements are all bongy because of those snacks you keep by your closet."

Téa gasped, spinning around, "I have no such thing."

"Oh really, because I'm pretty sure I saw them clear as day when I stayed over your house the other night." Amy answered slyly. That's right, she was a terrible person. As the old saying goes "when in doubt, use someone's kindness against them". I know that's not an old saying, okay. I just made it up. Just now.

"I happen to watch my diet very carefully!" she defended.

This was when Yugi made the mistake of making a noise. It was the tiniest, most insignificant noise. However, women are like wild beasts, even the most meaningless movement or sound can draw their attention your way. All Yugi had to do was shift his feet, and all of a sudden, both girls were blatantly aware of his existence.

He might as well have been sacrificed to the Tea Club. There are just some doors you don't open.

"And if I remember correctly," Téa countered, "I don't see how we have a problem. Aren't you the one that mentioned you could fit into Yugi's clothes!"

It was Amy's turn to be embarrassed, her face shifting red. She looked back and fourth between the two of them. "What, no! I didn't say anything like that! _You're_ the one that said we were virtually the same height!"

"Well then!" she grabbed Yugi out of the line, making the other three boys flinch, "You should be able to fit into _Yugi's_ measurements, shouldn't you. There's no excuse you can't go change." She pushed the small man in Amy's direction, shoving the two of them across the boat and behind a corner.

Yugi was absolutely stunned, trying to protest against it. But the angry Téa would hear nothing of it, and quickly stomped away. The boy was bright red as Téa left, the two short protagonists standing side by side awkwardly.

After a moment of silence, Amy broke it by saying, "Think I made her mad."

Yugi fiddled with his puzzle nervously. He kept his eyes on his shoes, muttering, "Yeah, you did."

The female sighed, realizing there was no way out. She fiddled with the bottom of her shirt, becoming ever more embarrassed. "Um... relax. We'll just swap overshirts. I'm sure that's all Téa expects us to do, she knows I have a tank top on..." Amy's words drifted off. Yugi's embarrassment wasn't lifting at all and it sure as [4filter] wasn't helping hers. The girl remembered how awkward she felt just being in a tank top in front of Téa, never mind Yugi. Amy could only let out a huff, and tell herself it would be quick.

"Take off your jacket and we'll face opposite directions, okay? I'll hand you my tee shirt when I'm done." she muttered. There was a distinct exaggeration of expression here, both were way more self conscious than they should have been.

"I don't actually need it. I have my school shirt underneath this." Yugi started.

Amy thought about it for a moment. "You are a little smaller than me, so the jacket might be tight with that many layers. We'll just put my tee away for now." The male nodded, taking his jacked off and the two turned back to back.

Yugi handed her the jacket, and Amy pulled her own overshirt off, grateful that she had decided to wear the tank underneath it. She almost hadn't when leaving her school uniform at Kame yesterday afternoon. She quickly slipped on the jacket, turned around, tapped Yugi on the shoulder, put her tee shirt in his bag, and the whole ordeal was over.

When they got back, Téa was waiting impatiently, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. Bakura was wearing Tristan's trench, which he looked like he was positively dieing in because of the layers. At this point, the group was one of the last groups to get off the boat, Amy putting her glasses on for good measure.

And despite Amy's better beliefs, it actually appeared as if the switch had worked. While this was baffling to the girl, as none of them looked particularly different, Téa seemed satisfied with herself. There was one point where Amy felt the Ken-Goon's eyes on her, and she glared back up at him. This did little, and they didn't get stopped, but it was clear that he had definitely noticed her. She stopped to peak at him as they left the ramp, and she could see him take his cell phone out, but the group was never questioned.

Exiting the ship, they all gathered together and let out one big relieved sign.

"I feel like we way exaggerated the intensity there guys." Amy let out a breath.

The group just smiled to themselves.

* * *

* Roughly "cockroach" in Welsh. Again, very rough.

Narrator's Note: So, I'm going to take this time to layout the long, extensive project that will be Beautiful Items. I didn't realize how long this was going to be at first, but I'm sincerely going to try to shoot from the beginning of the series, and actually complete it. I started this, and I'm sure as heck not going to half [4fliter] finish it.

Below, I've laid out the volume titles of the Beautiful Items series.

Beautiful Items:

Volume 1. Duelist Kingdom

Volume 2.1. Hawkins

Volume 2.2. Critical MMO

Volume2.3. Dungeon Dice Monsters

Volume 3. Battle City

Volume 4. Virtual World

Volume 5. Battle City Finals

Volume 6. R

Volume 7. Waking the Dragons

Volume 8. KC Grand Championship

Volume 9. Capsule Monsters

Volume 10. Battle City V-II

Volume 11. Millennium World

I want to note that some of these may be longer than others, and thankfully, duelist Kingdom is going to be one of the longer ones and I'm getting it out of the way first. The other dangerously long season is Waking the Dragons, and at this point, I can't tell which will be greater, but they'll probably be close. In a special case, the later half of season one is being broken up into short, individual parts. Similarly, season four is also being broken up.


	9. Chapter Eight: No Room for Mistakes

[On Track]

Disclaimer: OH BOY. DO YOU THINK I OWN YU-GI-OH. YA DUMB [4filter], I'M TEXT. I DON'T OWN JACK [4filter]. I'M BEING RUDE? WELL NO [4filter], AREN'T YOU THE CLASSIC DETECTIVE. YOU'RE GOING TO CLOSE THE PAGE IF I DON'T STOP? WELL COLOR ME [4filter] SURPRISED.

Narrator's Note: ….Are you guys still here? Well [4filter]. My elaborate scheme to divert internet trafficking has failed. Well, since you stayed, I might as well get on with the show. This late and short show. I know, I'm such an over achiever.

And you could be an over achiever too! Yes, you! For this chapter only (until next chapter), you could review your thoughts on this story. Do you hate it? Do you think it's out of character and should burn in hell? Now's your chance to tell it all! All you have to do is go down to the bottom of the page and find the box! It's that simple!

(What do you think of my sales pitch? Now go back and re-read that portion, imagining an adverting voice, like the one you hear on commercials for Moon Sand and shat. The ones that try to get you to buy cheep crap from the television. I am such a naturally born telemarketer, I know. If only my voice didn't come from the imagination and/or the narrator program.)

Narrator's Update: Wow. Would you look at that. This chapter is filled with typos. My laziness is showiiiiinnngg. Oh dear, whatever am I to do? I guess I'll just have to not give a fack. For now. Edit-a-palooza is stil under way. By underway, I mean I havent worked on it in months! Ha.

* * *

**Chapter Eight - No Room for Mistakes: "For this competition will test your skills like never before."**

Alternate Titles: Starring and Stairs, When I'm Repetitive it Pisses You Off, Acquaintances...or Friends?

* * *

I hear that being starred at emits a particular feeling. When you're being starred at, often times you can't help but notice that the eyes are somewhere, even if where they're coming from remains a mystery. You can still feel that someone, somewhere, is gazing their cruddy little eyeballs in your general direction.

Of course, this isn't a sensation I've felt myself, as, you know – not a physical being. However, I've had it described to me many times, enough to know that it must exist somehow. Or, maybe I have noticed it, and I'm just so used to being starred at. Being starred at is the purpose of my entire existence, being the narration of every source, essay, and blurb you people can think of. Heck, you're starring at me right now! Maybe I'm just neutral to the sensation.

Occasionally, the stare can be oozing with malice, or some other bitter emotion. Other times the observer may just be curious or thinking randomly innocent and pointless thoughts, like how nice that sweater that you're wearing looks. But often times, it is the stares full of hate and foul intentions that you humans sense the clearest. Or so I've been informed. Some looks create fearful responses, where you human become uncomfortable, "creeped out", or down right frustrated. I believe the expression goes it makes the "hair stand up on the back of your neck" or something of that sort.

Forgive me for not knowing the technical lingo.

While Amy's hair wasn't "standing on the back of her neck", she certainly felt the dark stare looking at her back. Amy groaned she saw the castle, and more impotrantly the stairs. A huge, unnessary, staircase. She groaned even more when the contestants were directed in that general direction, saw the amount of steps and loathed the sight. Just looking at the staircase made her even more tiered. Climbing up the stairs to meet Pegasus, the entire group of children were herded like cattle.

"I hate stairs." Amy muttered to the group, as they were bid to march up them. Amy could only rub her eyes as she spoke, the very thought of marching this thing giving her a headache.

Behind her, Joey sneezed. The rest of the group inched away from him as he wrinkled his nose in displeasure. Everyone accept Yugi, who instead looked awfully guilty. "You wouldn't have caught that cold if it wasn't for Weevil."

She rolled her eyes at Yugi's concern over the blond's little sneeze. "Speaking of Weevil..." Amy glanced back to were she felt that dagger vision come from. Slightly behind them, Weevil was glaring at the group. She wasn't positive which one of them he was glaring at, or if he was despising the whole group in general, but he sure was putting a lot of effort into looking hateful.

Boy Amy could not wait until he was a comic relief antagonist. "Congratulations Yugi, you've officially caught the attention of the regional champ."

"What a creep." Joey replied, "I would love to go down there and teach him a thing or two."

_'I would, too.'_ Yugi thought, looking back at the Insector. Amy just rubbed her eyes again, catching the short male's frustrated glance. _'But we don't have time for Weevil right now.'_

"Calm down you guys." Bakura came in between the Weevil hate. "I'm sure you'll get your chance to get back at him later."

Téa stepped in this time as his back up. (Together they make quite the 'voice of reason' tag team.) "That's right. There will be plenty of time to duel him after the tournament begins, then you can really show him."

_'Ah dueling.'_ Amy mused to herself. She fell behind the others as they continued up the stairs, tiredly needing a break from the climbing. _'The buffer to every violent conflict. In my day we kicked the shiz-freaking-nizzle out of people. Or talked it out. Depending on the person.'_

_'I think it's nice.' _Amiee responded. Amiee's transparent forum appeared next to Amy, hands behind her back, head tilted. _'No one gets hurt, or judged. And sometimes they see their mistakes as the duel fleshes out in front of them.'_ Amiee's smile faded, and she hesitated to add the next part. _'It's like a more peaceful version of the way we used to take care of problems in my home country.'_

Amy nodded, straining to remember that far into the future (all the way to season five friends, just saying), _'Yeah, yeah I can see that. Until you count the Shadow Games and all the Shadow Realm shat.'_

Amiee uneasily, slowly agreed. Her figure suddenly fizzed away, and as Amy guessed, because the group had drawn their attention back to her.

"Hey!" Joey's overly loud Brooklyn call pierce through her headache. "You're gonna fall behind!"

He was turning his body back to her, waiting many stairs up. Not just him, the entire gang had turned around. She couldn't even think of a wise crack to send his way, so instead she silently hopped up the stairs to catch up with the group.

All five of them had stopped to wait for her. Actually realizing she was gone, they went out of their way to pause long enough so she could join up with them. Thinking about this, Amy felt a blush creep up her face. Why did such a small detail seem so important? Why did thinking about it make her feel so good? Amy watched her footing, making sure not to trip while distracted from her thoughts.

Yugi broke her thought process, saying something from her left. His actual words were lost to the female, she heard his voice, but the rest of it simply processed as noise (because she is such a superb multitasker). So, she turned her head in his direction, saying, "I'm sorry, what?"

But when she looked at Yugi, Amy's eyes drifted to his white school shirt, and she felt herself blush harder. That's right, she was in Yugi's jacket. They switched clothes so she would have less of a chance of being caught and booted off of the island. _'I mean really,'_ the female thought to herself, _'who does that? Switching clothes, it's so off the record.' _Once again, realizing that they went out of their way for her.

It came slowly, but soon became perfectly clear to the girl. They were treating her like a companion. Like a part of the gang. And she was liking it. She didn't know where she was in status, but she certainly wasn't 'classmate acquaintances' anymore.

This wasn't part of her plan at all.

At this point, Amy realized that Yugi was still trying to talk to her, and that she had once again been too distracted to notice. All this thinking was making her small headache linger, and she winced at that thought. She looked at his face now, not sure about what he was going on about, but seeing it clouded by worry.

"...ky." Yugi finished. Amy blinked, and just starred at him, trying to figure out what 'ky' meant. The male looked, at that point, both worried and uncomfortable from the starring. Starring certainly does seem to be a theme this chapter.

The male hesitated, getting no response from the usually feisty female. She certainly wasn't acting like her normal self, and the whole group could see it. Finally, he said, "Maybe we should take a break after the opening ceremony...", and glanced back to his friends.

_'Break? Why would we need to take a break?'_ Amy pondered rapidly,_ 'Break? Break like rest? Resting like ky? Ky...ky...resting...feeling well? Feeling well like being okay? Ky... Oh! Okay!? He was asking if I was okay?!'_

Ugh. That was all? She couldn't believe it took her this long to figure out! The girl wanted to smack herself for being so dense under pressure, but figured that would only look really bad, so settled with mentally smacking herself instead.

"I'm fine." Amy blurted, her sudden conclusion leading to an even more sudden answer. Yugi jumped back, clearly not expecting the loud, booming response. She realized how bad the format of that answer looked and wanted to smack herself for that too. But she couldn't stop the panicky word dribble, especially after realizing that there was five pairs of eyes on her (excluding Weevil if he was even still looking)."Pegasus is going to start the opening ceremony any minute."

Somewhere inside her, Amy found the resolve to bounce around the group and rush up the stairs, face tomato red. It's incredible what embarrassment can do for the body. Upon reaching the top, the other players were already whispering about the impossible competition. Amy was huffing in and out, not realizing how out of shape she was. Meanwhile, everyone else followed close behind.

"Slow down a little, would'a? What's the deal with you?" Joey commented, the second to reach the top, "One minute you're falling behind, the next you're sprinting ahead of us." He ran up the stairs with general ease, and Amy eyed jealous daggers in his direction.

With a frustrated huff, the female stood up straight, putting her hands on her hips with as much attitude as she could muster. "I go...at my own pace... thank you." the girl managed to say in between breaths. One by one, the others regrouped at the top of the stairs.

"We're here on a rescue mission," Tristan muttered, coming up next, "not to -"

" - play... friggin Speed Racer." Amy finished. "I... used that reference once already...nice try though." She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, finally regaining her normal breathing rate.

When Yugi arrived, thirty pairs of eyes were scanning the rest of the crowd, gossiping quietly to each other. "Wow! Look!" One boy ahead of them turned towards his friend, eyeing the competition in shock. "That's Weevil Underwood. He's the regional champion!" The second strapping young grey blob (it's a metaphor morons, see the reference two chapters ago) turned to the side and followed the first's gaze.

Rather than looking at Weevil, the second boy's eyes fell to someone in a hat standing next to Weevil. "And that's the runner up, Rex Raptor."

Amy elbowed Yugi to get his attention, knowing that praise for the little man himself was coming up. But that would be after the two boys commented on a few more duelists, like the tan, goofy, well built, completely shirtless Mako Tsunami standing a few feet away, harpoon in hand. Luckily, Mako wasn't currently throwing said harpoon at unknowing contestants, which is always a plus. No one had a harpoon through his chest, courtesy of the Freaky Fish Guy.

The two sounded as if they couldn't believe their eyes. All of these dueling celebrities in once place? Exciting, isn't it?!

…Shut up. My sarcasm is completely necessary.

"Wow. These are all the best duelists in the world, but where's the champion, Kiba?" the boy glanced around to emphasize the missing person.

His companion answered him earnestly. "Didn't ya hear? Some kid beat him! On his own turf, too!"

The first boy's eyes got wide. "Are you serious?" he muttered, clearly surprised, "I thought Kiba was the best."

"He was. But not anymore."

Amy wasn't the only one listening in on the conversation now, she could tell her companions' ears had perked up just as much as hers. Joey and the others were glancing at Yugi, beaming with pride.

"Yugi's suppose to be the kid to beat now."

Yugi himself was not so much prideful as he was embarrassed, modestly looking away while the other nudged him. The boy couldn't help but blush from the attention.

"Don't be so shy," Amy whispered, "what you did was no easy task you know." The boy didn't verbally respond, but instead glanced her way with a slight nod.

The same goon that had been guiding the children this far (the hair guy as some of you may know him) was now standing high above the children. Him and two others waited dutifully on the balcony, while the contestants chatted. The castle they stood on was quite the intimating figure, it was build with each individual peace placed carefully and intentionally, rising high above the ground. An unpentrable fortress that rose from the ground. In the sunlight, the structured shimmered with golden tint. The image was true worth the Pegasus name.

Silence fell among the contestants, and for the umpteenth time this trip, the goon yelled "Attention!", getting everyone to look his way. The man stood with his hand behind his back, dignified with his position as the center of attention. "Please gather around."

Amy scoffed. No one moved, so apparently they were all gathered around enough.

The hair guy continued, "Your benevolent host is anxious to greet you all."

"Oh I'm sure he is." she muttered to herself. "What a dramatic piece of crap."

Joey tightened his fist, then tightened up his whole stance. Anyone could see that he was massively aggravated. "Boy, would I like to get five minutes alone with that guy." Panning across the cast, it was clear the Brooklyn Blond wasn't the only one emotionally hung up. Anyone could feel the tension coming from the group.

Pegasus's red and silver figure reached the balcony, and he proceeded to look down at the crowd. It didn't take him long to locate his special guests. (I mean come on, look at Yugi's hair! The kid would stick out in any crowd.) For a split second, Pegasus and Amy made eye contact, and he snicked menacingly. Amy didn't hold her disdain back, and glared at him with all the hate she could muster. Slowly, she shift towards Yugi, as if to make clear which one of the two she stood behind.

After this brief moment, Pegasus broke contact and threw his head out to address the crowed. It was time for the opening speech. Like a true CEO, the man's voice was confident, booming, and encouragingly weaving through the contestants below while his arms were out spread to open to welcome all who had shown up in order to complete his agenda. "Greetings, duelists! I am Maximillion Pegasus! It is my great honor and pleasure to welcome you all to the Duelist Kingdom. You stand before me the world's greatest duelists! But come tournament's end, only on shall be crowned "King of Games"!

"I implore you all to assemble your dueling decks with care, with creativity, and with cunning." he encouraged. There was a undeniable hint of leadership in his voice, confidence, and in the back of his tone, maybe even some cunning of his own. It is undeniable that words, when spoken right, have power, a power that punched behind every one of the man's words. Contestants all over the place began to take their decks out, wondering if their cards had what it takes. If they had what it takes. "For this competition will test your skills like never before."

Even Amy hesitantly took the time to look down at the pouch her deck was scattered in. She knew she wasn't planning on dueling at all, but somewhere in the back of her mind wondered if she too would end up playing the game. Would she be good enough to win? Not that she would even try too, but... metaphorically. Pegasus's speech was motivating her thoughts, even overriding her tired weight with encouragement.

Pegasus continued, his voice booming above everyone else. "To track your progress in the tournament you've each been given a dueling glove." The man revealed in his hands a slick red glove and star chips, holding them up as if he was exhibiting holy artifacts. "You've also been given two precious Star Chips. You must wager these Star Chips in each duel you compete in."

Beside Amy, Yugi slipped his own glove on, adjusting it to fit on his hand properly. His eyes showed undeniable determination.

"To advance to the final level of the competition for the chance at the three million dollar prize, you must," Pegasus held the sample Star Chip even higher in the air, captivating his audience below. The contestants barely dared to breath. "win ten Star Chips. Ten Star Chips will admit you entrance into my castle, where you'll face me in one final duel!

"This will be a tournament unlike anything you have ever experienced." the man assured his audience. "State of the art dueling arenas cover this entire island, and intriguing new dueling rules will be in effect. I could tell yo what those rules are..."

Amy spared a quick glance back at Weevil. She could see the glimmer of mischief in his eyes. Well, not his eyes exactly, more like from the glare of his glasses. But hey. She knew it was there regardless. Letting out a determined huff, the female muttered Pegasus's next words. "...but what fun would that be." She said this simultaneously with the rich man himself. Why did she say it? Because it was so like Pegasus to play games inside games.

"You'll discover them as you compete, or you won't last very long." Amy paused for this dialogue, letting Pegasus say it alone. That line didn't apply to her. She was with the kids that mattered. The girl was confident in that fact. Actually, surprisingly, she was confident in more than just that. She was confident in her dueling, in Yugi's dueling, confident in Joey. This time, everything would go right. Amy had never felt so sure of a fact.

An aura arose from the ground. Conference leaked out of the other contestants as well. In just a few words they had gone from completely unsure of themselves, to nothing but sure. Everyone felt it. They were going to do it.

To win.

It was a powerful moment that wrapped itself around Pegasus's final words. "Remember, play boldly," the words were pulled down into the crowd, "think strategically...". The kids were absorbing his voice like a sponge. Every face look ready. "And duel mercilessly!" Every stance was strong.

"You have one full hour to prepare, both your cards and yourselves. When the skies light up with fireworks the duels will begin!"

As Pegasus turned his back to leave, the crowd erupted in cheers; the couldn't help it. All of that encouragement and energy was bent up in them and this was all they could do to release it. For an hour they would no other way to get rid of it. And in a few minutes, that energy would ether drive them to work to victory, or turn rancid with anxiety. So right now, this moment was the only moment that mattered.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"Ugh"

The group stood in a flowery field. Fireworks had not yet shone through the sky, so preparation was still going on for duelists all around. Some were trying to deduce and discover the island secrets, others were simply looking for spots to claim, and some were simply standing there. Doing nothing. Our main protagonists were a party of that third party.

Coming down from the castle, Amy and the others walked until they couldn't see anymore duelists and then stopped to prepare. That "Ugh" came from Amy of course. As soon as they stopped she slumped onto the ground both bored and tired. The energy from Pegasus's speech had worn off about a quarter of the way down that giant staircase. "It took us the whole freaking hour to get down those flipflopin stairs."

Bakura knelt down. "Not the whole hour. We still have some time to prepare."

"Bakura."

"Yes Amy?"

"Stop trying to make my complaints better with your optimism. It's never changes my opinion. At all."

He was suddenly reminded of their encounter at the convince store. "Right sorry." he actually smiled at the thought, the little [4filter]. Bakura's words were quite different from his voice, while his words said "I will", his voice said "I won't". His voice said "I'm going to continue to be your foil because I'm starting to realize you say things all the time and don't mean it." And if Amy had more energy, she would have given him one hard punch across the lip for it. She still hated Bakura, but between letting her frustrations out on Tristan, and the lacking appearance of the infamous Spirit of the Millennium [4filter]-ness, she was actually starting to find him tolerable. But he wasn't suppose to catch onto that, darn little [4filter].

Téa, meanwhile, had her attention focused on other members of the crusade. Joey was standing there silently, looking at his lonely Star Chip. Yes, silently. Scary, I know. "Joey?" the Mother Goose said in a questioning tone.

The blond shook his head to the side and decided to speak his mind. "Yugi, I don't know if I can win this thing. Maybe it would be best for you to take your Star Chip back."

Yeah, right. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of that happening. But Yugi let him down genitally. "Nah, you keep it. You're little sister's counting on you to win the tournament prize money for her."

This is where things start getting sappy again. Ugh. Joey smiled at his friend. "Thanks man."

"You can do it." Mother Goose added. Joey turned to her a bit surprised. "you just gotta steer clear of the more experienced duelists at first."

"Yeah, it's just a matter of working your way up."

Amy flopped back up. She knew that she _should_ say something encouraging here. But then she recalled that she had already encouraged him back on the ocean liner, and felt that fulfilled her obligation. Of course, that didn't roll well with the others, after a few moments of silence, Tristan tapped her with his foot, indicating it was her turn to speak.

So the female sighed wearily, and waved an imaginary flag around in circles. "Wooooh. Go Joey." Her sarcasm and boredom with the conversation was almost solidly blunt.

Bakura interjected immediately. "I'm sure you'll do great."

"Thanks you guys." Joey's smile became determined, his eyes narrowing just long enough to say. "Almost all you guys." And glance in Amy's direction. Amy stuck her tongue out. Then his eyes looked determined as he turned back to Yugi.

"Well, Yugi," Yugi nodded at his friend's statement, "between my sister and your grandpa, we don't have any room for mistakes."

Our Oc looked up at the sky and mused to herself silently. _'I don't have any room for mistakes either.'_

A booming noise echoed through the island, and contestants all over the island turned their heads to the sky. Or, er, the castle. Depending on where you stood. Amy rolled her eyes, as they looked more like smokey explosions rather than fireworks. Of course no one else cared quite so much about the detail, as regardless it meant the same thing.

The tournament had begun.


	10. Chapter Nine: Said the Spider to the Fly

[On Track]

Disclaimer: _Life is so much better when you flavor it with fanfics. Season with my sarcasm and tale will soon unravel. Let's not forget to mention yet Kazuki Takahashi. Toss him in and add something from the animator's corners. Things get fun when 4K makes a run to the courts for a lawsuit. And after that Konami's back to save the dub from dea-th._

Disclaimer for the Disclaimer: Shut up I can not parody this Pippi Longstocking song.

Narrator's Note: As proof that I'm working on the edit-a-palooza, there's a sample of what the new chapters are going to look like. With titles and alternate titles and stuff. Everything has a title now, you just don't know it yet.

Today we get into the actual dueling part of Duelist Kingdom, where Amy harasses Weevil into slathering everyone on the island. One of these kids need an intervention, I just don't know which. So, if you don't mind, my contract of narrating extends past fanfiction and into other things, such as school papers and fiction stories where I loose my privileged to be insultingly direct and widely sarcastic.

* * *

**Chapter Nine - Said the Spider to the Fly: " I have all the faith in the world that you'll win."**

Alternate Titles: Playing with Fire (Actually With Bugs), Insector, Secrets, When They Point it Means Plot is Happening

* * *

This running was ridiculously sluggish. Why did Weevil Underwood have to run so flippin fast? And on his short, stubby legs too. Amy had short stubby legs, but that didn't mean she had to run like a jaguar to prey. Maybe he had the stamina built up from running away from bullies, or girls twice his size who were sick of his [4filter]. Amy could barely keep up with him. If she was as determined as the others, maybe she would have found her second wind (third wind maybe? Did Pegasus's speech count as her second wind?). The way Weevil thought he was being sneaky was just so facking cute, Amy just wanted to rip his facking face off and throw it in the facking blender.

You know the story. Weevil appeared out of the woods and waited for the gang. As soon as they made eye contact, the Bug ran off, laughing like a twit. And of course, the Yugi and the others followed. The pathway was pretty straight and smooth, if any of the cast here had been the "intelligent type" like in almost every Yoshihiro Togashi series, someone would have noticed that the path was clearly built to lead somewhere. Then they could have deduced that Weevil likely knew where it lead, and that this was a trap. But, since there is no Kurapika Kurta in the group, they chased Weevil on.

Insects in massive hoards flew above the trees, covering the blue sky with their color. The shadow of the mass of creatures created a large darkness over the group. But that didn't matter as time went on, for the tree tops above got thicker as the path lead them deeper into the forest. Perhaps the insects were an omen of the trials yet to come.

"Ugh! Where are all these moths coming from?" Tristan sneered.

Téa squeaked in disgust at the sight, and put her hands up to her head to put a barrier bewteen her and the bugs. "Eech!" her face tightened. "They're disgusting!"

"It's like they're following their leader." Amy mumbled in retort.

The group pumped on. "Maybe that's why he's so fast." Joey said.

"Because he's was raised by a swarm of insects?" she questioned.

The blond shrugged, "For a guys his size, there's no way he could be running, maybe he's flying."

"Maybe he retracts them around normal humans so nobody knows." Amy briefly pictured Weevil with moth wings sprouting from his back, flapping across the ground. And surrounded by a swarm of moths. He was cackling and the bugs were rubbing up against the side of his face lovingly. "Maybe that's why he's so angry, because his entire family dies off annually."

Téa, still protecting her head, tilted it up just enough to yell at them. "That so gross can we please stop talking about it?!"

"Why do you think he's running? He's wanted to duel Yugi for so long." Bakura cut in, keeping up with the group at the group at the very back with Amy. The five of them looked at Yugi's back as he ran determined at the head.

Tristan responded troubled, "I bet Yugi's thinking the same thing."

Soon, a clearing became apparent. A metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. In the middle of that clearing, Weevil stood, unphased by the run, untouched by the negative emotions being sent his way. Heck, it was like all that anger helped him grow. This devil needed some serious love wave intervention.

Hands in the pockets of his green trench, Weevil welcomed them, via a freaking metaphor, "Welcome," he paused, mouth widening, eye's narrowing, and head tilting, "said the spider to the fly." With a twist of his body, Weevil's expression changed from a dark one to a crazed one. He pointed up at Yugi, and even wider smirk on his face as he spoke again. "You flew right into my trap... Again!"

Now it was Amy's turn to let her expression darken, knowing Weevil was referring to the Exodia incident.

But Weevil's threats did not sway Yugi. Instead, he braced himself, then anger clear on his face. "It's time you answer for what you did on the boat ,Weevil."

Once again, the mood changed. Amy didn't know if the others caught the atmosphere, but she could tell. Yugi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they opened differently. Not quite so wide and innocent, but old and strong. Even his speech reflected a new conversation, with a different man.

So Yami stood, looking confident and proud, putting his hands on his hips. "Heh. All right, Weevil. Time to find out if you're as good at dueling as you are at running away."

"Flying." Amy corrected.

Weevil glared past Yami. In his defense Amy is kind of a bully. But, you know that already. "Was I simply running away, or cleverly leading you into my web?"

"I didn't know moths spun webs." Yami replied, a crafty smirk crossing his face.

"You'll pay for those insults." Weevil sneered quietly. The ground began to tremor and shake violently. Our protagonists had to brace themselves, taking a step back to even out their footing. But Weevil stayed still, tilting his head downward, the glare of his was the only thing they could see. He seemed very angry with the group. Maybe with a few members in particular.

The ground split, the earth parting apart from each other in a perfectly straight line. Opening up to a perfect rectangle of darkness. From below gears turned and steam spit out. That was when the huge metal platform began to rise behind Weevil. The platform seemed like a boring box, until parts of it began to transform. Both duel platforms rose and locked into place, the hologram projectors appeared on all four sides, glowing with energy and power.

"You've just stepped into the hornet's nest," Weevil's body twisted forward, showing his two Star Chips, his dueling glove, only to wave his arm back, presenting the machine behind him to his competitors, "and there's no way out!"

Joey and the others gawked at the sight of the monstrous blue, red, and grey platform. It was oblivious impressive to these small town duelists who were used to using table tops. The only thing that had moderately resembled such technology belonged to Kaiba Corp., whom they had only had a brief run in with before.

"It's a duel arena." Bakura muttered in awe. "They must have these things set up all over the island."

I call it a Duel Ring, Bakura, lets be real here. Not "ring" as in any round, metal thing, or the sound any of those various objects make, but as in a stadium for partaking in events. Events like dueling. Hence "Dueling Ring". Kapish?

"You'd better be paying attention Joey." Amy said.

The blond looked surprised, adding a "Huh?" so we all knew just how unexpected that was.

Sluggishly pointed to the field, one hand on her hip, the other directing his attention, the Oc said. "That'll be you up there real soon."

And Joey nodded, understanding what she meant now, then attentively eyes glued to the field.

Meanwhile Yami and Weevil walked onto their respective platforms. "I don't like this." Joey mentioned. As the machine brought them to positions above ground, they never stopped starring at each other. "Weevil's a little too cocky."

From the top of the platform, Yami and Weevil were in a completely different world. The entire surrounding became these grey squares, and each other. The conversation below no longer mattered. Both duelists readied themselves while the platforms arose and locked into place. As Yami, straight and confident, folded his arms together, Weevil peered at his opponent. His victim. That was when one small detail caught his eye. A single star chip gleamed in the sunlight peering through the clearing.

"I noticed that you have just one star chip, Yugi. I guess that means I'll have the pleasure of eliminating you from the tournament!" Weevil held up his own Star Chips as he smirked. "Once you're out of the way, everyone else's chips will be easy pickings."

This notion would normally be a tactic which would educe fear and/or anxiety. However, anyone of you familiar with either the manga or the Toei adaptation, as well as any other point later in the confound show, know that such words were not harmful to Yami. His attractive range of convidence did not make a implication of this nature upset him. He did not squirm, and get further trapped in the web as Weevil had hoped.

Instead, the camera panned in a blur to Yami, the unbroken courage in his eyes undeniable. Dan Green then said something unexpected. "Not if I take your two first."

As is to annoyingly emphasize what I just said, "What?" the insect loudly questioned.

Dan Green inferred on his words, "This will be an all or nothing match for the both of us."

Weevil understood now that his opponent was attempting to manipulate him. Out of all the silly ideas, the fly thinks he can talk to spider out of eating him. "Ha!" the moth responded. In his mind, Weevil saw this as a desperation to Yami's struggle. Trying to make a deal with the devil even though he's already lost. A sure fire sign that Yami had already lost the duel. And as the predator does to the prey, he amused them by answering the nonsensical notion. "Why should I risk both my Star Chips when you only have one?"

Yet, you as a reader and me as the Narrator know something different. This situation is not what Weevil perceives it to be. In fact, it's quite the opposite, for Weevil Underwood was the one falling into a trap.

So, Yami cast the lure into the waters. Or, more appropriately, he turned the light on the bug zapper. "Because I have something else I think you want – my life!"

And We-

•••Connection Lost•••

* * *

•••Reconnecting•••

Ugh. So here's the deal. Apparently according to the great gods of Nihon Ad System, Yami would rather bet his reputation as a duelist instead of his life. Lammmmme Nihon! Takahashi knows what's up, because wagering life is what going all or nothing means. Let me explain. From what I, your all powerful Narrator can uncover, in the manga, Yami bets his very life to Weevil in place of the second Star Chip. This isn't surprising, considering the Duelist manga follows the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, where people were set on fire and made insane.

However, Nihon focuses solely on card games, none of that silly highly amusing death and destruction. "It's too early in the series for people to die." Nihon said. "Guns will be drawn but no one will use them! Next season though, people can drop like flies. Yeah. Next season. For now lets focus on card games."

Or so goes the situation to my understanding. With a bit of humorous improve at the end there. I was programmed for English, okay, I can't read [4filter] Japanese! I can only read translations!

So, I am forced to rewrite that previous line to suit Nihon's cause. (You guys thought I was going to blame 4Kids, didn't ya? Ha. Not this time. But the Shadow Realm, I can blame them for that [4filter]. To paraphrase John Stamos in his famous 1987 role: There are no Shadow Boxes, huh. )

Yami cast the metamorphose into the other part of the already used metaphor. And then my perfectly good second metaphor is also being relived and drained of any of its use. And now Yami says "Because I have something else I think you want – my whole Duel Monsters deck."

"So, you'd risk your grandpas deck?" Weevil lit up at the sudden opportunity. "If I had know, I never would have throw away 'Exodia'!" He laughed momentarily, and greed crossed his face. "Fine by m-"

But then, suddenly Weevil stopped himself. Yami paced his deck on the table, which he had before been holding. He was sure Weevil would have taken the bait. However something was forming int the back of angry little man's mind. An afterthought. Weevil looked down, pushing his glaring glasses up as he organized these afterthoughts.

Naturally, this prolonged unexpected silence put Amy on alert. She crossed her own arms, leaned forward, and shouted up to the Duel Ring. "What's the matter Weevil, not good enough for you?"

At that interaction, he looked to the side where the gang stood at muttered, "Perhaps." Then, he placed his cards onto the surface of the Duel Ring and shook his head dramatically. "I'm afraid its just not good enough Yugi!"

Meanwhile, Yami clenched his fist, folded once again across his chest. "What?"

"After all, you do no longer posses the unstoppable 'Exodia', and the rest of your cards are weak and worthless to me."

This made Amy explode down below, shouting "Why you li-!" and she would of exploded more if Joey and the others hadn't pulled her back. She struggled angrily, enough that the others feared if given the opportunity she would climb up there and strangle Weevil.

"However..." he mentioned, and all went silent. Amy stopped yelling from behind Joey's hand cupped over her mouth. Time stood still while they waited for the condition.

Weevil pointed at Yami as if to offer up a challenge. "I'll take her deck in place of your other Star Chip."

The camera panned to the raging Oc as Weevil changed the direction he was pointing. Everyone's eyes were on Amy. '_Eh?! Me?!' _she mentally shouted. _'Why me!?'_

Joey exaggeratedly said "Amy?!" and the others did some repetitive forum of questions along those general lines.

Dan Green yet out his stern voice now, saying "Weevil! Leave Amy out of this!"

"I'm afraid I just can't. You see I learned something very interesting about you, Amy. Your deck must be full of goodies."

_'Interesting things?'_ the female though._ 'Could he mean...'_

"Weevil -" Yami started, again, getting even more impatient.

However, his words were cut off. The subject matter herself removed Joey's hand from her mouth and stepped forward. "Do it." Yami attempted to protest, but she disconnected his sentence once more. "Do it. I don't know what Weevil supposedly 'knows about me', but it doesn't matter. You won't loose – and the sooner you get those Star Chips, the sooner we can save your grandpa. So take his deal. I have all the faith in the world that you'll win."

Surprisingly (for Amy, I'm sure you saw this coming), the others banded behind her. Oh [4filter]. This was turning into a friendship speech. "That's right! We know you can beat him." Tristan started.

"There's no way ya can loose to this creep!" was Joey's statement.

And, "We're all behind you!" was Téa.

Wrapping it all up was Bakura saying, "Go get 'em Yugi."

Amy couldn't help but feel her point was simultaneously both supported, and null and void. That was how Amy initiated her first friendship speech. Yami's body was twisted slightly as he looked down at his friends over his super hunky shoulders. He realized that were right, and lifted his arm, holding a thumbs up for the people below to see. A smile crossed his face. Then, Yami turned to face Weevil, looking him in the eyes from across the field.

"You have a deal." called Yami, "It's time to duel, Weevil."

"Excellent." Weevil snickered., and bot drew their cards to begin the duel.

In the background, with all the hype, none of them had noticed other duelists were beginning to swarm. Now that the duel had begun, well, lets say it they had the luxury to listen to the onlooker's idle chatter. Those grey blobs caught wind of this duel, and fluttered in the trees around the Duel Ring. Someone, they saw, had broken the ice. A few boys stood at the treeline, in awe of what was going on. "That's so intense." one turned to friends amazed. "Who... are they?"

"I see Weevil Underwood, but who's the other guy?" the second one answered, shouldering his dorky backpack and wavy hair.

Joey smirked, opening his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by Amy. Arms folded, eyes glued to the field, she spoke to them as if they were the very air around. "His name is Yugi Muto, the man who's going to be the King of Games. The man who you should watch out for. All of you." Amy turned around at the last sentence and starred hard at them. The boys lost a little color in their minor character faces, and silenced their infernal yapping.

On the Duel Ring, both duelists had drawn their hands as the life point counters scrambled up to **2000**. Weevil began the match when he summoned his 'Killer Needle', the giant bee appearing on the field ready with all 1200 of it's attack points to sting. The monster was enormous and ferocious, but Yami had no fear of it. He held up his 'Mammoth Graveyard', and readied on the field for a counter attack. In a mass of sparks, the hologram appeared, waiting to be given the order. The face, nothing but the bone structure of a departed animal starred at the hornet - a black void where eyeballs would normally be.

"This massive monster will match you annoying insect." stated Yami. "Point for point."

And it was indeed massive. Amy was familiar with the hologram system, she had seen it in her head, in the future, but she had only seen it as a viewer. Never before had she been so close. And it was far more spectacular up close. The moment 'Mammoth Graveyard' entered the field, it took Amy's breath away. The detail of every bone was representative perfectly, every crack was plain as day. And when Yami cried out the attack, 'Mammoth Graveyard' charged forward. Amy couldn't even intake her lost breath. Part of her was too afraid to. The monster was too real. It was as if one wrong breath and the thing would come charging her way.

"'Killer Needle', let's show the mammoth your stinger." Weevil declared his attack with a wide smirk across his face. The monster bug's wings fluttered and it raced to the large skeleton, stinger outright and ready strike between those hollow eyes. And when it did, 'Mammoth Graveyard let out a fearful cry and disappeared into a ray of light.

Weevil laughed as Yami shouted in surprise, "No!"

He couldn't help himself but to gloat. "Ha! Gone after just one sting?" The sunlight glinted off of Weevil's glasses. "He must be allergic." When this opponent didn't retort, Weevil found this as an indication to continue his endless rant. "Haven't you begun to figure out yet why I led you all the way to this forest area? If you just look around, then you will see that this area is an exact replica of our surrounding environment. One part wasteland and one part forest. And who thrives in the forest?"

"Your family?" Amy called up, hands now on her hips. "Your ancestors? Your girlfriend? Your swarm of girlfriends?"

Angerly, Weevil growled ,"Bugs!" loud enough that everyone in the clearing could hear it. Under her breath, Amy grumbled that was what she just said. Briefly, this made the Oc think that she was perhaps laying the rude on a bit too thick, as this was the way many a horror movie started. Soon, however, she remembered that she just didn't care and dismissed the notion promptly. "The strongest and most powerful insects rule the forest. So as long as I play my bugs in the forest area I get a field power bonus.

"I guess you just weren't listening when Pegasus said that this tournament would have exciting new surprises in store for us."

Once again, Amy was the first to buff out an angry retort. She began it with "Ha!" and ended it with, "The problem isn't with our listening, it's with your sneaky cheating."

"Cheating?!" Téa gasped.

Tristan nodded like he understood, as if he didn't have to give it even a thought in the world. "Go figure! Weevil's been playing dirty from the very beginning."

"Go ahead, call me a cheater. You only call it cheating because you weren't smart enough to steal the tournament's secret new rules yourself." Weevil snickered from the top. "And because you didn't, little Yugi is about to be stung!"

"How cute you think we're jealous of your insecurities. "

A deep, Dan Green laugh interrupted this pissing contest. He seemed to find Weevil's words amusing. Maybe he found this entire panic amusing. As your narrator, besides being placed in the upper hand you and I know he put himself, Yami felt one other thing. He forming a distinct admiration for Amy's loud mouth below. Her encouragement, her confidence, it had never once wavered. She stood in that spot, starring hard at the Duel Ring, not phased by anyone around her. Like she was totally in control. And it gave him some boundless confidence.

Of course, you as a reader vaguely know why. Because keeping you in the dark and revealing things at pointless moments is what I do for fun, you don't know the whole story. You know just as much as I want you too. And of course you know enough to understand what Yami didn't, why she had this confidence.

Weevil Underwood's previous point of confidence was soon retracted, and his face lit up with surprise. "What? How can you be laughing?" Surely someone on the path to loosing the match and the chance at fame and fortune wouldn't find this humorous.

"Because. Take a look at your ferocious 'Killer Needle' now."

And sure enough, as Weevil babbled incoherent "what"s, the bug was overcome by light and exploded into computer generated beams. "Oh no! My monster! What have you done with my monster?!" The short green boy leaned over the Duel Ring to look at the stats of the late 'Mammoth Graveyard'.

"Looks like my mammoth got a field power bonus from the wasteland area, just like your bugs do from the forest!"

A growl escaped the Insector's lips. "That field-point advantage was suppose to be mine alone!" His eyes widened again, only this time not with surprise, but with realization. Snapping his body to the side, the gaze between the two met. "I see, you hypocrite! How dare you humiliate me!"

At first, most of the group didn't know who he was talking too. Maybe his imaginary friend, who was probably a Beedrill or something. "You must have told him about the new rules. If anyone's the real cheater here, it's you Yugi!" His arm raised as he point across the field to Yugi. Because that's apparently what you do during a duel, all the time. Point at [4filter].

Yami's face fell in confusion and cringed in defense. "What?"

"Because you have a member of the Duelist Kingdom Event Developers on your team!"

The faces on the others shifted to show they didn't understand. Joey's brow furrowed. Bakura whispered. Birds escaped together from the trees and flew into the sunlight above. The bugs in the forest wove in between the branches like they hadn't before. The air around was heaved with a horror previously unnoticed – as Amy's secretes started to unravel.


	11. Chapter Ten: Where I Stand

[On Track]/[Non Extra/Extra]

Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a man who would weave tales of ancient magic and devilish games. His great story telling powers lead his tales to focus on a group of heros and their card games. Until one day, the card games decided they were tiered of being written into the tale. "I'm bored of being trapped here." said the card games. The heros were also bored of being trapped into the story, so they too said, "We are as well."

So the card games and heros left the story. However, they didn't enter the real world, but an animated world that began retelling their story. The heros and card game fought once again, but were they happy with that? To go from one version of their world to the next? Was it really what they wanted?

Narrator's Note: Well. YugiMotuLover asked for it. And who says I'm not freaking benevolent Text. This chapter took two months before I would tell it to you becccaaauuse, that's why. Just because. The stupid thing could tell which way it wanted to go. Amy couldn't decided how much a Mary Sue she wanted to be.

Aside from that, there was one other reason it was late. Does the term **OWD** mean anything to anyone? Probably not? Well listen good because it's im-freaking-portant.

**The "edit-a-palooza" I promised has been slightly altered. Rather then go back and change what I already have, a different idea occurred to little old me. As your Narrator, I decided the story could be better, because that's just the kind of Narrator I am. So, I decided that I would just retell the story. "But what about this draft? Are you going to leave the story hanging and start from the beginning?" you asked fervently. No insignificant lifeforms. I'm going to continue this version, to continue manufacturing the story. It will act as a type of rough draft that is continuously being updated. And while I update, I can still get your feedback on the story to make the final draft even better. I'm calling this technique an "Original Working Draft" (no justus) meaning it's the original draft of something on my page with the same name, and it's still in the works. See my profile for more useless information regarding this. Let me know if you still don't fricking get it.**

* * *

**Chapter Ten – Where I Stand: "_I am on Yugi's side._"**

Alternate Titles: An Audience with Pegasus?, Notes on Ways to Remove Yourself from a Sticky Situation, You're [4filter] With Me Right?

* * *

How to deal with this situation 101: there are many possible reactions to respond to an embarrassing event. From fleeing to homicide, the possibilities are vast and can get extremely creative. Of course, how creative something is, and how effective come at different levels. On some occasions, such creativity will only due to hinder, for example, if Amy had swung her arms around, turning to the trees while screaming "I am the Night!" and ran into the forest, it certainly would have distracted everyone from Weevil's statement. In some universes everyone including the Bug may even have dropped the subject all together. Of course, down the road Amy's companions would probably be inclined to question her mentality.

Similarly, lets say she had chosen to do something less creative but just as abstract. If Amy decided go and dart away, running through the trees, fleeing from the sudden burst of pressure. How about guilty until proven guilty? Running always makes you look guilty.

Not to say that she's _not_ guilty, Amy's totally guilty of being in cahoots with Pegasus. Yup, she helped set up the tournament and said "Hey Yugi Muto has a Millennium Item." while starring Pegasus right in the face, sitting at the same dinning table as him having a rich meal. Weevil was spot on. I should have save the "Detective" joke for the Bug.

What? What _you_ looking at? Oh, did I not mention that about the Oc before? My bad.

It must have slipped my mind.

What hasn't slipped my mind is where we are, or more specifically, the frame that I've left Amy frozen in time at. Her possibilities are endless at this point, as to what she could do, but she didn't know what to do. And so many of them played through her head in a fast blur of thought. If she did nothing, well, then whatever happened from here on was out of her control. If she did the _wrong _thing, then she would be the one spin everything out of control. If she did the _right_ thing she could recover from this and proceed at the speed limit. But what the_ hell _was the _right_ thing:

I could plead for Yugi's trust. Oh, wait, but when he finds out later that Weevil was right I probably won't get a third chance. I could, oh! I could cry. That's... both pathetic and guilty looking. Also pathetic. I-I know I said that that already but shoot-a-monkey-in-the-butt, there's not many other ways to describe it. I don't play the girl card that well anyways. Or I could play it off nonchalantly like Pegasus didn't steal someones soul or I could pretend to not know what he's talking about. With a real smooth lie. But Tristan catches my lies a-lot. Or I could just tell that truth. Would that work? Is the truth even a thing? Would they let me explain? No one ever gets to explain. I could climb up there and kill Weevil. Not seriously maybe just knock him out and spill a little blood – just a bit nothing seriously harmful – just maybe a concussion or a minor bodily wound. Accept when he wakes up he'll tell everyone more and I'll be screwed and it'll be a kick in the pants to failure and I won't have any friends anymore because they won't like me anymore because I tried to assault someone to cover up my tracks. I could... I could...

Her head was spinning with all the thoughts spinning around her brain, and the others spinning around her head. Weevil's laugh became distorted in the background, everyone's silent questions forming a wall that hindered the sound. Gravity weighing down with each invisible line of sight.

"What...she neher..told yo..u." the distortion rang, followed by more cackling. Those words broke past the barrier in pieces and buzzed in between her thoughts and the gazes locked her way, and, and looks, and answers, and was spinning with the whole world. Information was overriding other bursts of information. Where the ground was, how to balance, what to look at.

"What?" Weevil cackled, "She never told you? You should really screen your friends better Yugi." Hence justifying the fact that he had none. "What a dramatic act of betrayal." The boy's anger dissolved as soon as he looked at his opponent and Yugi's band of cheerleaders on the ground. It was priceless, none of them seemed to understand what he said. Or perhaps it was the face of denial. How lucky Weevil would be to be able to watch the peppy group fall.

"Yeah right, ya' creep!" spoke the blond kid with the bad accent, "Amy's our friend, there's no way she'd be working with Pegasus!"

"You're a liar and a cheat Weevil, there's no way we would believe you!" the brunet with the large chest defended. "Tell him Amy!"

A ticklish feeling came over the kid in the green trench coat. Look how hard they were trying to escape the facts. Weevil almost wished he had made it up, then he could fuel the fire as much as he wanted. "I may be the cheat, but it looks like I'm not the liar here."

"Tell him Amy!" she repeated.

But Amy was silent, and mostly still, aside from scanning her surrounding companions.

"Go on?" the small British boy in the back with obscenely white hair replied. There was a hint of unsureness in his voice.

From up here, it looked as if the subject had lost a few colors in her face, as she had made his darling audience do not too long ago. Her posture wobbled, face wavered and strained. It wasn't very long until she fell. Her knees locked with the ground, one palm crushing the grass and the other pressured to her head.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"Master Pegasus, Yugi Muto has arrived and has already started dueling." Croquet stood by the door, facing the back of his employer's decorated chair. Pegasus twirled his glass impatiently. With a sigh, the flamboyant man closed his copy of Funny Bunny the Comic.

He took a sip of his milk/grape juice/wine/4kids drink of choice. "I'm aware Croquet."

"The stow away has also made it to the island, along with her friends."

With another sign, Pegasus picked up his comic again. If only Croquet could be less tedious and more like Funny Bunny. Funny Bunny never wasted a moment like his employee did. Every action was filled with purpose, even if that purpose was solely comedy. But not Croquet, he wasted energy rehashing information Pegasus already knew and interrupting his precious free time while doing it.

Funny Bunny was his retreat. When all else failed, he always had the cartoon rabbit who built his childhood to fall back on. In times like this, while he waited, he needed that something to fall back to. His plan was in motion and pieces were set. There was nothing else he could do for now but wait.

And even more important, keep his lovely Cecelia waiting. How painful, Pegasus has pondered recently, it must be for Celia to wait for him to save her. How she must be counting the minutes until they were back in each other arms. Until the could see each other again. He hated to cause her such pain, but if it meant they could be together again, he knew Cecelia would forgive him.

So he flipped the page once more. "Wonderful, simple fabulous." Pegasus chuckled.

Croquet didn't move, unsure of whether his boss was referring to the news, or the comic. Perhaps, he suspected, it was both. So unflinching, Croquet waited at the doorway for several minutes while Pegasus shifted through the slim cartoon-ish print. "What should we go with her? Shall we have her and her friends evicted?"

Comic still in hand, Pegasus rested his elbows on his chair and threw his hands up in the air. "Now that would just be just rude. Don't you have any sense of hospitality Croquet?" he said smugly, "Rather, lets invite her to castle, where she can view the fruits of our labors." His put his hands down and began gazing once again at the colorful pages of Funny Bunny. His adviser bowed and left, closing the door quietly. Pegasus's hair fell from its place, and a glint of his eye below poked through. He could only let out a nasty little smile, full of confidence and craftiness.

"After all," Pegasus's finger traced over the side of the page, "we still haven't had the chance to discuss all those juicy things you've been keeping from me, my perfect little pawn." The image of Funny Bunny smashing Ruff Ruff McDogg over the head with a shovel made him laugh wholeheartedly.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Joey tried to put his hand on Amy's shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?" However, she took her hand off her head and slapped the gesture away. Her other hand, fingers interweaving in the grass, tightened into a fist. She gritted her teeth.

"Shut up." were the quiet words that she could muster, a weak anger behind them.

The blond followed this with a shift away and an annoyed glance. "No need to be rude."

"Joey!" Téa scolded.

"What? What'd I do?"

A whisper came from her lips, ignoring the two. Vaguely, it sounded like she said, "I'm so sick..."

Everyone quieted down again, having missed it with their bickering. "Eh?" Joey raised an eyebrow, not totally sure what he had heard.

Louder this time, both fists clenching the glass below trembled with frustration, "I'm so sick."Her voice trembled, the sentence coming out in unsteady pieces.

"Nn?! You're sick?!" Joy jumped back exaggeratedly away. But Amy didn't seem to hear this comment. Instead, a growl could be heard in her throat. Her head still spun, but it was easing up now. Soon, her true meaning began to flow across the clearing. "I am so sick and tiered of people trying to tell _me where I stand_."

The words were slick to the ear. While they flowed out as meek at the beginning of her sentence, they became stronger and stronger. With more power behind them. Every word seemed true, and more importantly, sure. Amy slowly got onto her feet, a little shaky at first but soon steadied herself. "_I am so tiered of everyone telling me what my intentions are. Of getting questioned at every corner._" Thoughts of Amiee, Pegasus, and Bakura filled her mind. Even thoughts of Tristan. Grass she ripped from the ground upon standing up was becoming pressed in between her fists. Forget it. Forget taking this situation rationally, planing out what to do. Forget being logical. Now matter what she did, somehow it always lead back to this. Before she even realized it, she snapped from panic to pure anger.

"_I am on Yugi's side._"

This statement wasn't directed simply to Weevil, but to everyone. Friends, foes, people she didn't even know. Blasting through the clearing, never had she sounded any angrier, bellowing the declaration from her gut. Tristan felt it in his bones, she meant him too. And Téa remembered the night she question Amy's intentions.

"Never, ever, question me again. Not you Weevil, not anybody. I've gone through too much to get this far - to be taken down by your _petty_, _jealous_, _weak_ accusations. And if you want to be a big boy and talk crap about me, go on do it. But _don't _you ever, ever,_ try to use me to mess with him_."

_'You hear me?' _Amy thought now, _'Pegasus, Marik, Dartz, everyone who thinks they can turn me into a scheme. I'm talking to all of you!'_

Another wave of dizziness hit her, but she shifted her balance to stay on her feet. It wasn't easy to move one foot back and calibrate he weight, but she managed. Once it passed, letting out a held breath she began walking away from the ring. The energy burst of pride and anger was fizzling now, but hopefully no one would see that. Amy knew she had to get away, even for just a little while, or else she may collapse right here. And she wanted nothing to do with that.

"Where are you going?" Tristan called, starting to follow his unsteady acquaintance.

It took all her will power to muster up one more glare. "To get some air! Anyone got a problem with that?"

Nobody objected.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

A small distance away from the duel sight, Amy collapsed on her hands and knees. She would have liked to have gotten further away, but her body would allow it. It had spent all the strength it could. Eventually she didn't want to even kneel, so her body simply tipped to ground and she laying her side, hands cradling her head.

_'What's wrong with me?' _she thought.

Amiee appeared next to her, patting her companion's hair. A look of sympathy and guilt crossed her soft features._ 'You're exhausted.' _Amy let out a weak groan at that. _'You haven't eaten or slept well since we started this journey. All this stress is coming down all at once.'_

_'What stress? I haven't been stressed since the seventh grade.' _Amy defended bitterly.

_'You've been stressed since the moment I met you.'_ the transparent girl's tone was motherly,_ 'I could feel it. Every lie you've told, every frustration, every panic. All the guilt. I'm sorry I'm putting you through all this.'_

She wished she could snort sarcastically. _'No you're not. You know you've got me wrapped around your stupid finger.'_ Amiee didn't disagree, but her actions and face remained the same. _'Your goal is to be with the pharaoh and my goal is to help you.'_

_'I know. Although I still don't completely understand why you agreed.'_

'_Because. You asked.' _

The spirit looked surprised and unsure by answer her other half had given. So Amy clarified. _'It's not like my life was going anywhere. And this may damn well be the most important thing I ever do... ugh how do I make it stop? I can't stand feeling like this.'_

_'You should rest.'_

_'Ya know,' _Amy thought meekly, _'that doesn't sound like a bad idea...'_, and gave in to the grip of slumber, laying on her side in the softness of the grass.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

It didn't last very long. Soon conscious again, and aware that she was moving, Amy's mind began buzzing. She knew she wasn't walking, but instead being carried, almost like a sleeping baby. Her brain instantly processed this familiar scene. "[4filter]... Tristan. Put me down..."

Where she expected the voice of Greg Abbey, an unfamiliar guff responded, "I see you're awake Miss Amy." Alerted by this, she scanned her mind for some possible memory of the voice in question, but no matter how much she searched she couldn't recall who it belonged too. Reluctantly she opened her eyes and strained to look at her captor. Carrying Amy was a man with plenty of grey hair and a small black stash. His face was lined with age and wrinkles that contorted in a bored form. Or, at least she thought it was boredom, but he was difficult to read so she wasn't positive. Maybe it was the look of blind loyalty? Or just the sagging frown of a man working for his paycheck, despite his feeling towards the job or his boss. Of course, with the typical sketchy sunglasses and suit to boot, making it official as to who that boss was. Oh. This guy.

One of Pegasus's robotic ken dolls. What in the world was his name? "Put me down!" she growled, more forcefully this time and wriggled around in his grip. In fact, wasn't this his head goon?

"Master Pegasus requests an audience with you." As he muttered, he appeared to look straight ahead. Hardly paying any attention to his captive the man looks so uninterested it hurt. "I've been instructed to retrieve you."

Growing ever impatient, Amy barked, "Instructed to retrieve me my flowery rump, now put me down before I wonk ya, Adams!"

"As you wish." the new Ken-Goon, set her down surprisingly gently. Amy had half expected to be bluntly dropped, knowing Pegasus's staff. She could only frown, not sure whether or not she hated this guy. Rested enough, she followed him to the staircase. The two didn't speak to each other, knowing that neither needed to, nor wanted to. Amy didn't know what was going through the rich man's mind, but she knew that she would get the information from him, not some sideshow assistant.

Indifference, she finally figured, that's what the man emitted. Pure working indifference. It was strange to have neutral ground with someone. Amy had spent so much time strategically configuring allies and enemies with people she knew. But somehow, she encountered someone who was neither. The man worked for Pegasus – who was undoubtedly the enemy of the day – yet he wasn't a pure extension of Pegasus. This goon was an individual man, who didn't seem to care for his bosses ploys but had no issue with furthering them. So, it turn, any opinion towards Amy were lacking in substance. She was just another part of his job.

It almost seemed like they were on equal ground. And to think, she couldn't even remember his name.

Reaching the edge of the giant hill the castle sat on, the man lifted up a fake stone, revealing a lever. While the goon pulled it, Amy starred at the giant structure looming gallantly above them. It was intimidating for sure, even if she could only see parts of it through the tree tops. A rumbling sound emitted from the rock and a small section was pushed forward and began to lift. Small grains of dirt from where it had been settled for so long fell from the rising entryway as Amy starred harshly at the passage. Arms crossed around her chest, she imagined this was one of Pegasus's many secret tunnels littered with comical traps and sleazy eliminators.

The man didn't need to tell her to enter, she was already striding through the darkness by the time the passageway opened completely. At first the tunnel was pitch black, however soon torched began to light themselves on both sides of the wall as she penetrated their motion censor timer. It wasn't very long before the tunnel opened to a room. In the first moment, the room was covered in pitch darkness. Eerie tension hung through the space as she waited. Then, the room was flooded with lights, all at once. Amy winched and placed her arm over her eyes to protected them until they could adapt. He brain was jolted back to full function, surprised by the sudden attack of light. "What the..." she growled, blinking several times.

"Now that is that the way to greet me after all this time?" The teasing voice of Darren Dunstan cut through the pigments and Amy slowly let her arm down. A very large screen was set in front of the girl, that flickered with Pegasus's smiling face. He lifted his hand and made a 'tsk tsk' motion. "What did I tell you about that language?"

"[4filter] you."

Pegasus merely shrugged. It seemed like he was having legitimate fun picking on the girl. "One of these day you're going to find out there's no place in my line of business for that phrase." He closed his eyes and gently flicked his hair off his shoulders.

"You're line of work doesn't concern me, I told you that already! Gwad you're such a..." she paused angerly, biting her tongue. The other leaned into the screen smugly awaiting what she'd say. Finally Amy let out a mutter, "...marshmallow head.", and a blush, unable to think of something that wasn't littered with profanities.

"Oooh. How scary." He let out a couple of sarcastic claps.

Amy's response to this was to growl like a rapid, pissed off dog, and pointing the screen waving her arm around. "Shut up you!" Then she swiped her hand to the left. "What did you bring me down here for anyways?! Where are we!?" Something seemed out of place. Why would he bring her all this way just to call her, to a dark secret location. It didn't seem to add up. She thought she'd find an eliminator down here, not channel Marshmallow Head.

What better way to get answers than asking. Even Pegasus wasn't to enthusiastically insane to run her around in a circle. Right?

Right. "Well I was going to have Croquet bring you to the annex, but you complained about my lovely staircase so much already that I thought this would be more appropriate. It's one of my special dueling arenas, and a secret tunnel leading right up to the castle doors. I think it's quite cozy, wouldn't you say?" he responded nearly immediately.

"I think it's dark and completely unnecessary, now tell me why I'm here!"

Pegasus moved the hair out of his eye to displayed his item. "About this my dear." His eye began to glow with ancient magic. From underneath Yugi's jacket, her item to began to glow. She rolled up her the sleeve a turned her wrist to look at it. The two items were causing each other to react.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she hissed, trying to cover the eye with her hand.

"I learned a great many things about that item while you were gone that I know you've been hiding from me, including," (but not limited too) "that you've seen the future. And I think it's about time you shared it with me, don't you think so partner?" A grimace crossed his face. His time for having fun picking on her was done. Now it was back to business. Back to rescuing Cecelia.

Amy winced as the light grew stronger. _'Oh no.' _She could feel Pegasus's eye drawing them in, trying to break the ancient mental barrier that surrounded the item. If Pegasus got his hand on the future, he'd know to separate Yugi from his friends. Then they're be nothing to keep him from looking into Yami's head, and knowing every card that was played. But there was one fatal flaw in his plan. "Nice try Pegasus, but the bracelet can't just tell the future! It only happened once, and that was a long time ago."

"Oh, I know that, I'm not looking into _it!_ I'm looking into _you!_"

_'[4filter]!' _No, no no. Pegasus's item was trying to weave its way into her mind, she could tell for sure now, and it was winning. She tried to fight back, but it was like her thoughts were being pulled out of her. _'He's right! Don't think about it!' _Amy blurted internally. Even in her thoughts she sounded desperate, unsure, and in anguish. There was no confidence. Interactively she crossed her arms over her face, one eye still wincing and the other barely open as it seemed like the light of the screen was engulfing her._ 'No!'_

Pegasus's frown turned into a smile as he knew he was winning this tug-of-war. His mentality and willpower far outweighed hers. His reasons was far greater and most importantly, so was his power. Light engulfed Amy, engulfed the screen, and engulfed the scene.

_'This... is not, happening!'_ Amy thought desperately. She could practically hear Pegasus's laugh of success as he made his way into her memories.

_'No!'_ a voice blasted through the chaos, small but strong, a familiar voice Amy didn't recognize immediately. _'This isn't! I won't let it!'_

Pegasus was looking into the darkness. He was searching through visions of Amy's memories playing out like films. Amy riding her bike in the rain, the way she veered her handlebars like she was loosing control. The female at the stove - a strong liquid being heated. He saw the look on her face while she and friend chatted away casually, roughhousing every so often. But Pegasus had seen all this before and it was of little interest. Images of further along began to play out in front of Pegasus as he scanned for the memory he was looking for.

He saw Yugi's victory over Mako Tsunami, Yugi standing on a Duel Ring surrounded by darkness. Oh, Yugi would do just a wonderful job making his way through the ranks. The pieces of film flashed by and Pegasus could feel that the moment was coming nearer, faster and faster, sooner and sooner, he would watch his duel at the end and secure his victory – and securing his happiness for the rest of his days. As the moment approached he saw Yugi's group of friends standing on the sidelines of the final arena, starring down in mystification. What they were looking at was, Pegasus grinned madly -

It was then that a bright light shone through Amy's mind, causing the scene to fizzle away. Pegasus cried, as it was his turn to shield his eyes. "No!" He growled. "I was so close."

When the light cleared, the image of Amiee stood, her arms spread defensively. A fierce look like never before scene was in her eyes. "I said I wouldn't let you!" she hissed. Her voice was not the quiet squeak that the female normally produced, but passionate. Strong even. "Get out of here Pegasus. You won't get anymore!"

Pegasus let he arm down and squinted at the roadblock before him, soon recognizing it as the spirit he met in the Shadow Realm that day. At the time she was something to toy with, to test whether the research he read was true. But right now she was no such thing, instead she was just a little girl getting in the way in a big way. Pegasus grunted, severely annoyed, "Get out of my way!" His eye grew stronger, trying to force itself in.

But so did the bracelet. Pushing back the ancient power with its own. Amiee's stance didn't budge, but instead she raised one arm and then spread her hand towards the man, like she was directing a strong force. "I told you to leave!"

Pegasus felt himself being pushed out suddenly, unexpectedly. It seemed like had been bluntly punched away, giving no time to struggle. Even on the screen, Pegasus's body was thrown hard against the back of the chair. If not for the king-like structure, he probably would have tipped over.

The light emitting from the items died down. Amy slowly opened her eyes again, anxious as to what she would see. On the screen was a revealing sight. It wasn't a good one per-say, but it lead Amy to a conclusion that Amiee had somehow prevailed. Pegasus's image on the screen had him leaning forward, elbow on the table, face in his hand. He looked drained, and more importantly defeated. So Amy could finally relax her shoulders wearily. "And stay out..." she muttered, hoping to appear unshaken even though she was quite the opposite. Her headache was starting to come back and she felt drained as well.

Ancient magic was turning out to be no easy task.

Pegasus's response was to look up at her with his regular eye, the Millennium one covered by hair. That look was muttered with anger, creating a devil glare of pure resentment. Look at all the adjectives I know. Phew. I mean you as the reader must be adjective-d out.

"Is that all?" the female breathed, trying to stick her nose in the air.

"Croquet." the other said. He began fixings himself on the screen, straightening his posture and readjusting his hair. What he could fix was that overall dark tone, and the fact this face had paled. Meanwhile, regular lights suddenly flooded the room. Causing Amy to blink several times.

She finally got the chance to look around. Croquet – the Robo-Ken who's model actually had a name – was standing by the entrance of the space. The rest of the environment became clear. It appeared to be some kind of supped up tunnel, almost like a cave. Accept for one pactulair thing. In the ground there was an image that looked like a Duel Ring.

The spot where Amy stood began to shake and quake. Then it began to rise. In fact the whole image of the arena began to rise. The outline of the walls came up from the bottom, and the summoning floor as well before it fell into place. Amy grabbed on to a part of the platform, now taking its intricate shape, to keep her support. When the gears and mechanism finally all clicked together, Amy was standing on the challenger side of the Duel Ring.

Gazing at the spot, the female watched the lights on the ring appear and disappear, indicating the device was ready. "You have got to be kidding me."


	12. Chapter Eleven: Panic Attack

[On Track]

Disclaimer: ...Do you seriously not know the copyright information by now? Must I spoon feed you every time?

Narrator's Note: I could tell you why this chapter took so long to update, but that's a story for another time. Three stories to be exact. What matters now is it's here and you [4filter]s finally get to see who Amy's opponent will be. The first part of her first duel. Was it worth the wait? Phsssed. Like I know the answer to that.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven – Panic Attack: "****_'I feel...I feel so alone.'_****"**

Alternate Titles: The Chapter that took Three Months to Write, Unexpected Enemy, Amy Understands the Weird [4filter] Duelists Do

* * *

Well poised, Croquet was the first to speak up. "Due to Miss Amy's lack of Star Chips, the rules state that she should be placed on the first boat leaving the island immediately."

Amy didn't bother to think of a come back to that. No matter what quick witted retort she thought of it wouldn't change the fact that she was stranded on a Duel Ring. No matter how much she eyed the ring, she couldn't figure out how to get down. So Amy kept her lips closed and settled for starring at Croquet and the oversize screen of his boss.

The inevitable "However" was next. "Master Pegasus has kindly offered to give Miss Amy a second chance, should she duel and win against her opponent."

"So that's all I have to do, duel and leave?" Her eyes narrowed down to the card bag on her hip. "What if I said no?"

"Should you refuse the offer, you will be escorted from Mr. Pegasus's property promptly."

Unzipping her pouch, Amy let out an annoyed groan. "Fine. Where's my opponent?" It was the first time in a while she had even taken out her cards. Where so many cards looked crisp and clean, hers were raggedy, with edges damaged by the elements. She couldn't count how many times they had to be peeled apart wet. "Who's the poor sucker."

Pegasus regained his composure, promptly straightening himself in his chair. While there was a distinct pass of exhaustion in his features, he otherwise looked like the CEO Amy knew him to be. "Now, now, don't get ahead of yourself my dear. I swear one minute you're wallowing in your own fear and the next you're incredibly violent."

"Hypocrite." she muttered back.

"It's simply not that simple! I can't you just let you back into the tournament you see, there's just no way I can add a new contestant once it's already begun."

Normally, in this situation, the protagonist would say something stupid like "What?!" or "But you just said...?", rather than let his counterpart finish the riveting speech. But Amy knew better, speculating that Croquet's well rehearsed lead in wasn't for nothing. _'But man, do these guys sure strive for drama. It's almost as if I'm in a show that needed to keep the audience's attention, so everything sounds overly wordy like a sales pitch.'_ thought the gir-.

…

...Oh [4filter]. She knows my secret. I guess I'll just have to kill her character before she discovers the fourth wall and breaks the boundaries of the multiverse. Or worse. Turns this into a reverse insert fic.

_'But that'd be just silly.'_ she finished, wrapping up her thought.

Well drat, I suppose I don't have to kill her then. I was quite looking forward to it too.

"You'll be dueling for a different position!~" Pegasus chirped, in his own fabulous 4kids way. "If you win this, you'll be dueling for me. As an eliminator."

Amy broke inside, her previously distracted thought now snapped back to attention. Her? _An Eliminator?_ That was not part of the plan. "Oh, hey no! I'm not doing that Marshmallow Head!" she growled, replacing hell with hey in some futile attempt to watch her language.

Pegasus shrugged. "That's fine, decline then. I'll just have you shipped off the island and entertain my eliminator elsewhere. Like say," the screen that had previously displayed Pegasus's ugly mug now showed the map of the island. It began to zoom in to a heavily forested area, and like a pop up, another screen appeared. This one had stats on it, displaying Yugi and Weevil's current battle information. A trap card appeared on the field under Yugi's picture, and Weevil's life points began dropping rapidly. "the Forest Arena? I think it would be a nice twist to an otherwise boring outcome." Pegasus's voice got deeper, more menacing, the tactful CEO momentarily erased by the lonely lovesick plotter. "Don't you?"

Her eyes only widened in horrible realization. The words "You wouldn't." stupidly slipped out of her mouth in disbelief, when we all know he would.

Pegasus appeared back on the screen, face exaggerated as if he had just been struck with a good idea. His voice had functioned back to it's playful CEO tone, while he continued mocking the girl. "There's no need to wait for the dark of the night to send my Eliminators after Yugi, and that blond boy. The one with the sister?" Now he had switched his target to Joey, another necessary piece in the game. And, right now, a more vulnerable one.

A laugh, a violent laugh, arose from the other side of the ring. A deep voice echoing through the cave sounding like David Moo. The platform shook at first, then began to grind emitting some eerie mechanical noise. "This is it? This is my first victim?" Amy knew she felt her eyes flicker, a sweat break across her face. Somewhere in her memories, she knew that sadistic voice. Or, at least she _would_. It was suppose to be a few more hours before she first came face to face with it.

The man, dressed from his grimy head to toe in the darkest colors, made eye contact with his victim the moment his head slid into view, a slimy look in his eyes. Each eye had a line – whether it was a scar or not, Amy couldn't tell – crossing down to his sicking grin. In a way, he kind of a twisted clown. PaniK.

The dark player killer.

"So which is it? Are you going to duel me? Or do I need to find another victim to play with." PaniK smirk, the disgusting smile maintaining on his face.

"It's all up to you Amy, dear." Pegasus interrupted, which PaniK didn't seem to take kindly too. Regardless, seeing as he was the boss, the sliver haired billionaire continued without seeming to notice. He turned the side slightly and put his finger on his chin. It would look to anyone like he was thinking, and playing koi about it. "I guess I forgot to mention how big a price there is on Yugi-boy's head. An extra bonus in their paychecks you could say. But..." he shrugged his shoulders. "If you don't want to duel I'm sure..."

"Oh shut up!" she howled back. He knew perfectly well she could refuse with those kinds of threats. The Duel Ring registered her deck as she shuffled and placed it on the surface._ 'I don't like this one bit. I never thought out of all the people, Pegasus would be the one to back me in a corner. I thought he'd be so focused on Yugi and Cecelia he'd forget about us._'

PaniK also placed his deck on the Ring. "Oh you will? Wonderful!" Pegasus meanwhile show exaggerated shock and excitement. "I just knew you'd see it my way." He clapped his hands with a tried smirk. "Let the games begin."

"Are you ready, girl? You'll be the start to my reign of terror." PaniK drew his cards slow, savoring every moment he thought would endue fear into her. "There's no better feeling then watching a duelist squirm beneath my gloves."

_'And I never dreamed he'd sick this sicko on us.'_

She didn't say anything at first. Thinking about dueling PaniK threw a wave of uneasiness over Amy. Perhaps it was the difference between watching from a far, and seeing right in front of her eyes, just like with the life sized monsters in the duel ring, that was overwhelming. In person, PaniK leaked a heaviness of malevolence, violence, and the worst part, uncaring. Even if she hadn't witnessed his duel with Yugi in her vision, the sheer tremor of carelessness could be sensed from even this far away. And if it person doesn't care, they lack a conscience. Without a conscience, there was nothing standing in the way. But Amy's eyes hardened.

That very feeling that bestowed this natural fear that left another mark behind. A feeling that she would never loose to someone like this. A surge of anger, mixed with determination clashed with her fear. And there was a gut feeling left behind, one that made it clear that Amy wasn't allowed to give him any satisfaction. She would achieve complete and total victory. She wouldn't dare show PaniK any fear.

For the first time, Amy understood why duelists pointed to their opponents. Her arms raised as she lifted her hand towards PaniK, singling him out from the rest of the world. A direct decoration from her to him. "Listen good you psychotic frig. Don't try to believe for a second that you're anything but a coward, and if you want to use your sick tricks, then do it. Because I won't loose to you, not now not ever."

As she spoke, PaniK's grin started to fall, in awe of the strong words being emitted his way. But that didn't last long, soon regressing back to its original state. "That's a lot of big talk for such a small prey. Clearly you don't know what you're up against when you duel me." She saw his hand move along the Ring. In mere moments, her legs were trapped by metal anklets, grasping tightly around her ankles._ 'Its the same thing he did to Yugi. And Mai. That means...'_ On the other side of the field, PaniK pushed a button saying, "When you play with me, watching weak duelists struggle is more than just dueling – there also the thrill of the hunt. And I just love to watch my prey squirm."

That was when Amy felt the heat of the flames shoot across her sides. The devices that shot those flames came from the Duel Ring, adjusting their target at the girl. _'I knew it!'_ Heat to her left, right, heat all around her Amy tried to defend her face from the fire by crossing her arms protectively above her head – and feeling the flames barely lick the side of her arms.

Though Amy had used pretty words, the truth was she felt her heart in her throat. Although she did everything possible to withhold the expression, terror was bubbling up inside her. The last time the girl had been this close to fire, it was wild and unbiased, destroying everything in its path. It wasn't there with intention to destroy things, it was just doing what it was born to do - keep burning. But this fire was different, it was aimed with the only intention to injure. Or worse. She closed her eyes, knowing that looking would only feed her fear, and hopped the situation would pass. When she tried to shift her body and move her legs, the ankle traps was just the reminder she needed. If he wanted too, he could kill her.

Finally, the danger passed, the heat of the flames receding. Amy opened one eye reluctantly, only to see PaniK laughing. "Where's all that big talk now? Or are you too scared to even comprehend what I'm saying?"

She tried to compose herself, "Sorry PaniK, your game doesn't scare me. Horror games have never scared me. I hate games that cram pantie shots and displaying organs on the wall in the same five minutes, but more than that I hate intimation horror." Amy straightened, crossing her arms. "After a few minutes it just becomes boring." Her heart pounded with every word.

His face lacked amusement. "We'll see how boring it becomes when you're begging me for your life." PaniK picked a card out of his hand, and laid it horizontal on the table. "My 'Castle of Dark Illusions' will do just that." the Castle floated above their heads, still at first, then a dark cloud began to leak from it. "Prepare for a darkness, thick and dangerous like you've never seen before."

"I can't see his monsters." Amy squinted at the opponent's screen now covered in a thick coating of black. And on the field, the darkness spread across both corners until there was a wall of thick black fog. _'Yugi defeated PaniK with the 'Swords of Revealing Light'. I have one of those but...'_ she glanced over to her deck laying helpless on the table top, _'I don't know where it is. I've got to find another way around his 'Castle'. What do I have that can stand up to his monsters.' _Amy hoped her hand had the answer.

'Ancient Brain' (1000/700), 'Fairywitch' (800/1000), 'Driving Snow', 'Fiends Hand Mirror', 'Armored Lizard' (1500/1200)

She bit her lip. There was nothing here that could destroy the 'Castle' and even more so, nothing that could reach it. It floated high up to the top of the cave, hovering there in all its glory. _'At least the field power bonus from the cave should be able to help me keep afloat.' _Amy picked up her 'Armored Lizard' and placed in on the field. "I'm not afraid of the dark PaniK! I play my 'Armored Lizard' in defense mode."

"If you're not afraid of the dark, then why are you cowering from it?" Only the gleam from PaniK's eye, fulled with ill intent could be seen through the shadows. The sound of a monster being placed on the field echoed though the cave – and Amy instinctive squinted, trying to seen what it was. The white of his grin could be seen for a brief second, before 'Armored Lizard' was swallowed by a dark cloud that shout out from his side of the field, engulfing the reptile and dragging it back. Sicking noises of cracking and crunching rose from the cloud. Amiee brought her hand to her mouth in horror, while Amy only flinched.

"And thus ends the life of my first victim."

This sicko. "H-Hey!" A stutter escaped her. She was almost too afraid to make the words. It seemed like, just like in the duel with Weevil, the monsters were real. Life like. And that was all the more terrifying. They would be coming for her next. Amy couldn't help but hesitate.

But hesitation was a sign of fear! And she had vowed not to show any fear to this psycho, as it would only indulged his sadistic hopes.

Amy pinched herself under the table, digging her nail into her flesh – hoping that she would be able to shake this horror though some other stimulus of pain. "What about my field power bonus? Caves should give to reptiles and rock monsters!"

"You didn't know? The darkness from my castle eliminates all other field power bonuses, leaving my prey to struggle and fight all on its own. So no matter how much you fight the darkness, it can still reach you, isolate you from the light."

_'He... he's right. Shoot! I completely forgot! I was so busy worrying about PaniK, I let something I knew already slip by me.'_ Amy drew her next card reluctantly. _'I don't know why I'm so scared... I've never been attacked like this before. And I feel... I feel so alone, being scarred and not having any of the others here.'_

_'But Amy, I'm here.' _Amiee cut in.

_'We share the same body Amiee, so there's nothing we can do to help each other. Whatever happens to me happens to you. I know you're there Amiee, and I know I'm not really alone, but not having anyone on the sidelines means there's no one to help us if we need it. I wish – I wish Yugi was here.'_ Amy felt herself tearing up. Thinking about it – being all alone in this dark place, if PaniK chose to really eliminate her, no one would know. If he set her on fire no one would be there to put it out. There was no one else.

All those times she thought how pointless it was to have people cheering on the sidelines, now she was starting to understand why. Amy wished she had that right now. It was such a small detail that while watching Yugi's story played by, she always thought was meaningless. All those unnecessary speeches about having friends by his side that Yugi and Téa spat out constantly – they did nothing. But watching it was different than feeling it. More than ever, Amy wished she had a friendship speech to fall back on.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Weevil gasped. So did Mai, wide eyed and colored mouth agape. They couldn't believe the look on Yugi's face, widely confident and undoubtedly cunning. And for good reason too. Mist covered the field, a golden square lighting up. It flashed, color thick through the mist. Weevil's showed the fear it deserved. A drop of water dripped into the square. "Everything's wet." his eyes drifted up to his enormous virtual bug spreading its wings out on the field. "My 'Great Moth' is totally soaked."

Dripping wet, the moth flapped it's wings in slow motion. Compared to the creature standing in front of it, the month might have well been a saggy puppy. "And my 'Summoned Skull' attacks with electricity. Making your waterlogged bug a giant sized lighting rod." Yugi was so kind to point out, as if no one else understood the laws of nature. (What he should be pointing out is something no one actually understood – that those laws applied to card games.) "I hope you're in the mood for fireworks Weevil, because all this water boosts my monster's electrical attack by..." get this tomfoolery, "1000 points."

'Summoned Skull''s points rose to 3500. Dan Green called to the monster from the deepest depths he could muster from his early Yami voice, blowing up the recording booth in the process."'Summoned Skull', Lightning Strike!" the creature growled in it's small background noise of a voice, and lit up as if the heavens above had struck down on him with deliverance. And Weevil could only cry in distress as the creature delivered it's own deliverance upon 'Ultimate Great Moth', who was suddenly surrounded by lightning bolts. The creature groaned painfully while the bolts danced around it's wet body.

And then in a blink, it exploded. A puff of smoke surrounded the creature, causing the entire audience to let out a breath in aw. That could soon turned to a roaring flame, violently spreading out across the field. And with, Weevil's victory was also smoldering away.

"It's over."

Weevil could speak, the shock not even digested yet.

"I've won."

"No!" was the one of two words Jimmy Zoppi found himself able to release. "Impossible!"

It's true, Yugi's come back had seemed quite impossible. Only a few turns ago, it seemed, that 'Gaia the Fierce Knight' had stopped the cocoon in its hatching phase, and given birth to this monstrosity. That Mai Valentine had found the duel, not too long after Amy stumbled out. (In fact the two passed each, Mai giving a questioning look at the distantly tiered individual.)

Flash backing, for example, to when the blonde told the group the pointlessness of cheering for Yugi after 'Mirror Force' destroyed Weevil's army of bugs, Bakura politely pointed out, "But Yugi did make a comeback. I bet he's just a good as Weevil." as Mother Goose was about to explode – metaphorically, not like 'Ultimate Great Moth' – all over the blonde.

"One lucky move doesn't mean he can beat a champion. Once Weevil gets serious, your little friend will be kissing this island goodbye." She flipped the tip of her hair and refolded her arms in front of her chest.

Téa couldn't help but blow up now, despite the 4Brit's buffering. "Nobody asked you! So why don't you just take a hike?!"

"And miss the chance to watch a champion like Weevil as he turns this around? No way." Mai stepped towards the Duel Ring, and the boys just couldn't help but notice Mai's expansive, yet with the help of 4Power nonexistent, chest she was wrapping arms in front of. They all grew slightly red.

Even Bakura, to reassure the fanbase he is as straight and phormonal as an arrow despite his polite nature, blushed and muttered, "Well, it's true that Weevil will probably make an even better comeback." succumbing to the evil that is sexuality.

"He's done it before after all." Joey coughed.

"He was pretty impressive during the regionals." Tristan looked to the side.

This time Téa blew up, specifically at Bakura, who happened to be closer and the first to have spoken. Her voice got rather shrill and sharp, like one would imagine an angry cat. Only Téa was a goose, so that analogy doesn't completely fit. "Who's side on are on!"

This caught Bakura by surprise, and he jumped back. His effeminate face was now completely red and he waved his hands around it to attempt to hide that fact. "Y-Yugi's of course!"

"Then start acting like it!"

Mai chuckled from the side.

Now (end of that flashback), it was as clear that Yugi had won. And his friends doubts, while not completely their fault in the face of such fine (but edited out) pressure, were proven to be misplaced. Mai on the other hand, her shock was on a different level.

But probably the most traumatized was Weevil. "But my moth's unbeatable." he shrunk away from his big size and back to the little insect he was, life points quickly dropping. The Duel Ring began its end of duel processes, letting the duelists down. Leaving Weevil and his star chips to grovel on the ground.

"But I'm the Regional Champion. The Regional Champion." But, but, but, the Bug kept throwing 'buts' out there to deny the fact that he ever could have lost. Regardless of all the 'buts' he could muster, Yami Yugi still stood in front of him, the victor of the duel.

Yami Yugi approached him, closing the gap. "You call yourself a champion Weevil, but you only won your duels by lying and cheating." (A your Narrator, I'd like to weigh in here. Yami has zero evidence to that claim. Just because Weevil lied and cheated his way though this duel doesn't mean he's done it in every duel. But hey, what do I know, I'm just omnipresent. Who am I to contradict the main character.) "But true champions," Yami tossed his new Star Chips up in the air, catching them in his palm. "they play with honor. They play fair."

Joey sneaked up on Weevil from the side, with the most thug-tastic look. "Ah, don't waste your breath on this sneaky slug. He's a dueling disgrace!" This caused the Bug to faint out of fear, and probably pee himself a little – which is gross but totally likely – "And I here by relieve him of his Dueling Gauntlet."

While Joey gained 10 exp. for looting an unconscious man, Yami put the stars into his own gauntlet. He was only seven Star Chips short now, seven little pieces of metal away from rescuing his grandpa.

"Guys, I think we have a problem." Bakura broke Yami's narration of confidence. He came running up to the group, having slipped out as soon as Weevil's life points dropped to nothing. "I just took a look around and I can't find Amy anywhere."

All attention turned Bakura's way. "Come to think of it," Joey finished adjusting his new Dueling Glove. "She hasn't come back yet."

"You don't think she could have run into trouble, do you?"

Yami receded back into his mind, and Yugi was fully conscious and in control again. Tristan was the next to speak up. "Honestly, knowing her, it wouldn't surprise me if she did." Everyone thought about how aggressive and agitated she was, and Amy in that state would have been willing to pounce on anyone.

"I'm a little worried," Bakura interjected, "she didn't look like she was doing so well when she left."

Silence followed. Yugi looked like he was thinking, until finally he nodded. Partly in agreement, and partly because he had made a decision. Of course he knew that Weevil was wrong, but he felt as if Weevil hadn't been _completely_ wrong. There was things that Amy was hiding, but his gut told him that he could trust her. So finally, Yugi said, "I think we should split up and look for her."

"Huh?" Téa asked, "You really think that's a good idea Yugi?"

He nodded. "I believe in Amy, but I get the feeling there's things she isn't telling us. There must be a reason she can't say anything." Tristan agreed with him, having been the first to jump on this conspiracy train a week ago. "If she's in trouble we should find her as soon as possible." Yugi finished.

"Why don't we meet back at the bottom of the stairs? As long as we don't go too far away, we should be able to find it." Tristan suggested. Yugi nodded again. As they were about to disperse, Bakura said something that made everyone pause. "Hold on a second, would you really go so far as to risk getting lost for someone who could end up being your enemy?"

He was met with blank stares. "`A course." Joey said.

"That's what friends do." Téa added, before the group nodded to each other and separated. (Or, "that's what you do for a friend" if you'd rather the Swan Princess sing along).

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

From the other side of the field, her opponent was not blind to the pained expression on Amy's face. He could see her emotions break through the brave talk his prey had previously laid out. The way her mouth cringed downward and eyebrows dropped – Amy was becoming a mess of despair. She was playing right into his hands, like so many other duelists would. "Do you feel the shadows engulfing you? Do you feel all hope being sucked away and devoured by my monsters? No matter which way you turn, girl, you're all alone, so you might as well curl up and wait for the end, while my shadows rip your life points apart – until there's nothing left of you."

_'He's right. Its only been a few turns and I'm already flustered.'_ Amy hung her head low. Her misery leaked from her aura, and it was all to clear how she was wallowing in it. It seemed that all hope was lost.

But at that moment, something clicked in the back of her mind. A single thought swept in and out of her short term memory. _'Hold on. I've heard those words before.'_ Thoughts diving into her long term memory, and image flashed by. One where Yami stood in the night, looked at his cards and on the field. Where Yami looked up at the 'Castle of Dark Illusions' that floated before him. As he faced the very same darkness.

Another Yugi. From another universe. The Yugi/Yami that Amy saw in her vision, the Yami/Yugi that you as the reader have watched so many times, when he was facing PaniK to save Mai's lost Star Chips. His 'Celtic Guardian' had just been brutally destroyed in the same way, held trapped and helpless by the monsters in the shadows. Yami thought the same words.

"That's right." Amy whispered, "Yugi's been through the same thing. I almost forgot, he battled PaniK, faced the monsters, and withstood the flames. He's done it too." The girl straightened herself once more, although this time she paid no attention to PaniK on the other end. "And Yugi won."

Her mind felt like it was clearing up – because it seemed as if she realized that someone else had shared her pain, that if someone else had strong armed through this situation all hope wasn't lost. That shared experience made it feel as if Yugi was here. Amy felt her heart skip a beat. Why did this make her feel better? Make her feel like she wasn't alone. Yugi wasn't physically here, just like how Amiee wasn't physically here. There was no one who could physically protect her, just like before. So why was this different? Where did the contradiction come from?

Another thought flashed through her mind. This one wasn't like the one before in the fact that this memory was a personal experience, rather than just something she had watched. Amy remembered, only a short week ago, when she was arguing with Grandpa Muto. It didn't seem like much at the time, just like friendship speeches and cheerleaders. _'__"The stress of playing Duel Monsters provides both a physical and mental strain to the body."' _Grandpa said at the time.

A smile couldn't help but creep across her face. "That darn old man was right. I guess there's more to this game than just strategy." Duel Monsters is a game of psychology as well as counting numbers. And PaniK exploited that part. This duel was a battle of psychological warfare, and Amy had been loosing. But, the girl realized, it wasn't too late to launch a counter attack.

When Amy realized how ridiculous she had been acting, she could help but laugh about it. Laugh very loudly, might I add. Two minutes ago she had been a broken ball of drama, then was indulged with an epiphany, and now felt better. I mean, mood swings much? And all together it was actually quite funny. So she let her bellowing laughter echo through the cave.

PaniK didn't like that at all. "What? What do you think is so funny?" His victim was a wreck moments ago, she wasn't suppose to recover so suddenly.

"I was just thinking," Amy said in between chuckles, "that you really almost had me there with your freshmen level psych student act. Like you really almost had me. But there's something you didn't take into account when plotting out your insults. You didn't take into account my friends." Amy paused her laughter to take in a deep breath. "Geeze, I can't believe I actually said that. That's so cheesy. I'm going to turn this duel around PaniK, and I'll do it with one card."

The man's face began to twitch. "That's not possible."

"Oh really?" Amy finally took a look down at the card she drew this turn. And slowly, she began to turn the card around to face PaniK. "With this, it's a whole new game."

The spell card 'Reload'.


	13. Chapter Twelve: Line up of Light

[On Track]

Disclaimer: If you saw the new Yugioh movie trailer, you'd know exactly who this copyright belonged too. So don't make me repeat myself.

Narrator's Note: So, I changed the first prologue. That's a story I tell a slightly different way. Meanwhile, Amy finishes up her duel with PaniK, and we learn stuff and crap and [4filter]. I guess I just don't have a lot to say today, luck you human! I know, right, gasp?! The narrator's not feeling snarky?!

How will you ever survive without receiving my daily dose of disrespect.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve - A Line Up Of Light: " These five cards will be the end of you"**

Alternate Titles : Anger and Panic, Impossible Luck, Amy Makes a Bluff

* * *

"What?!" PaniK narrowed his eyes.

"That's right PaniK, I play the spell card 'Reload', allowing me to retreat my hand back into the deck and draw again." Amy took the four cards and shuffled them back in, never taking her eyes off of her opponent.

He wasn't having any of it. "Draw cards all you like, there's nothing that can save you now."

Feeling that first new card on her fingertips, Amy felt her fighting spirited roar up. And something else crashed over her, some other feeling. Logically, the girl had trouble deciding just what this was – a kind of reassurance maybe? A surge of power? Or maybe she was just being cocky. But it seemed as if Amy knew that the card she was about to draw would turn this around. And when she lifted it up, the girl almost couldn't believe what she saw.

What a stroke of luck. What coincidence. She tried not to let the shock show on her face, but it was just too priceless. Just a PainK spoke, as he was attempting to taunt her, she drew _this_? "Don't mind if I do you scum." Her lips curled, taking that first card and placing in on the field. "And my 'Pot of Greed' will help me do just that."

He groaned in agitation, quickly loosing his patience. "You're bluffing."

"'Fraid not." That made five cards. It put five fresh, new cards in her hand. Essentially, Amy was being giving the gift of starting over. _'I can't blow this chance.'_ taking in a deep breath and picking up the top five cards, her thoughts were buzzing. She closed her eyes, and imagined herself standing in the darkness, holding those cards. In the place of each card was a bright question mark, and slowly that question began to spin and spin until suddenly each one was engulfed in light. And as she imagined this, Amy realized that _'I can't play it safe with PaniK. I may not know what these cards are, but I know they'll save me. But that isn't enough. If I want to win, I'll have to break him. I have to lay everything on the line. It's a gamble, but if it works, he'll be the one panicking.' _

Amy opened her eyes, finally, and in her imagination the light faded from the cards and revealed themselves to her. She looked over each one, hoping that there was something to take down his 'Castle'. No. No. No. No. No. Five nos in a row begged to differ with her expectations.

But she had to trust in them. The girl looked at her cards hopeless for a second, unsure how they could come together. And then Amy laughed when she realized that these cards all had one thing in come. She laughed like she did moments before, unable to help stop it.

Yeah, these cards would do.

"What's so funny this time?" PaniK growled, his fingers dancing around the flamethrower buttons. This girl was starting to get on his last nerve. She had yet to make any significant move, yet she stood there and mocked him without a twinge of fear. The dark player killer was ready to change that.

Amy held out her hand, displaying to PaniK the backs of the five cards. "These five cards will be the end of you PaniK. They'll not only protect me from you, but they'll destroy you."

"There's nothing you have that can get past my 'Castle of Dark Illusions'."

"You're right." She started. "But I don't need too."

That was the line that made PaniK sure that his opponent was not only bluffing, but she was cracking. All his frustrations disappeared. After all, there was no way she could defeat him if she didn't attack, and how could she attack an opponent completely veiled in shadows.

But then Amy said something else that broke him out of his potential giggle fit. "In fact, to prove it to you, I don't need to draw another card." He paused, paying full attention now. "If I have to draw again this duel, I'll forfeit the match to you." What was she saying? What game was she playing? (You know, besides the literal answer.) Slightly taken aback, PaniK wondered what she had to gain by such a bold move. Surely her hand couldn't be as good as she claimed. No, the tiny prey must be cracking under pressure.

At first, this proposition seemed boring to the Eliminator. How would be able to utterly crush her if she forfeit? The image of Amy realizing that her defeat was caused by her own mockery suddenly amused the man, and he understood how delectable that self-destructive torment would be. Maybe even more damage than he could do. So PaniK also grinned, and the two grinning monkeys met a silent understanding. "I accept your terms, under one condition." he added. This was his chance to add to the self destruction. "If you forfeit, I get full rights to the twerp that Pegasus mentioned. Yugi Muto was it? I get to find him and crush his will to ever duel again."

She was silent, her face dropping. "Not so loud now, are we? Is this Yugi so important to you that you're ready to second guess yourself after all that big talk." With still no response, he continued, feeling just giddy on the inside. There it was, her fear was back. This was the string he could pull at to manipulate all her emotions. "That's fine by me. Once I'm done with you, I'll make Yugi Muto wish he was never born."

It was the finishing blow. He drove the wedge so deep into the crack that she would sure crumble. Fist shaken, head downward, her confident posture had slouched. Now she would beg for mercy, to drop the whole agreement, but he wouldn't let her. The pressure wou- "Sure." He paused again, not sure if he heard the words right. That didn't sound like begging. "Its agreed then."

Amy singled one card out for the second time. She lifted it in between her fingers, and flipped it around to show her opponent. "Feast your eyes on the only monster I'll need to defeat you – the first of my five cards - 'Neo the Magic Swordsman'." (1700/1000)

"You think that thing can defeat me? My creatures of the dark will slaughter it."

Amy placed 'Neo' on the field in attack mode. A flash of sparks arose on her side of he field, and emerged from the ground was blonde haired Spellcaster wielding a sword._ A dimensional drifter who not only practices sorcery, but is also a sword and martial arts master._ Standing in full armor, 'Neo' looked straight at the darkness with his piercing yellow eyes.

"'Neo's a gallant warrior of light who's is more than enough to the likes of you PaniK."

A growl emerged from the shadows surrounding half the field. Eyes looked straight at 'Neo the Magic Swordsman', but the duel monster didn't flee nor flinch. Amy laid the other four cards face down of the field in the spell and trap card zones. "And I'll play the rest of them right here, right now. Leaving you wide open for an attack."

_'What does she mean wide open? My shadows still surround her monsters, ready to leap at any moment.' _PaniK twitched. "You think a little armor can defend against my creatures. You'll soon learn little girl that you've made the biggest mistake of your life exposing all of your cards like that. This duel is over for you and for your precious Yugi." The darkness began to creep around the duel monster. "Annihilate her monster with your Dark Grasp of Fury."

That annoying smirk crossed Amy's mouth again. She folded her arms. "You weren't listing PaniK. I never said anything about 'Neo''s armor defending him. All I said is 'Neo' was a creature of light."

"Hm?"

The darkness surrounded the spellcaster completely, and the bundle of black began to drag its prey back into the darkness. Then without warning, a light appeared cracking through those shadows. "That isn't possible. My darkness should block all light from above and below." He winced. The beams became brighter and brighter leaving PaniK to hold his arm up to shield himself from it.

"Your 'Castle of Dark Illusions' neutralizes all natural light PaniK. But I suspect that magical light is quite the different story."

The man winced as the light overcame them all together. "No! I can't stand the light...!" he screamed, trying to shield himself completely. And when the blast of light cleared, there 'Neo' stood, one arm raised in the air, magic glinting from his fingertips. The other a gruesome looking creature struggled in. Around the duel monsters, shadows repelled and stayed dispersed.

"My 'Barox'! But how...?!" he growled, setting his arms down.

Amy picked a green card up from the table, now exposed and flipped over. She held it up for PaniK to see. "That would be my second card, 'Elf's Light'. It's the card that allows me to fight off your 'Castle's darkness, and shine a hole in your twisted games. There's a light at the end of every tunnel PaniK, and this one's mine." 'Neo the Magic Swordsman' dropped the 'Barox', but as it went to flee, 'Neo' grasped the hilt of his sword, drawing it and slicing through the monster in the same second. 'Barox' shattered. Amy watched this with satisfaction, her eyes falling upon the virtual fragments. "There's nowhere left to hide PaniK, 'Elf's Light' will draw you out for the coward you are, and will be the cause of your downfall. It also helps that my magic card gives 'Neo' a 400 attack point boost (2100/800)."

PaniK's life points stared to drop rapidly.

**Amy: 2000 lp**

**PaniK: 1280 lp**

"Nnn..." the man, eyes looked as if they would pop out of his head, facial expressions tightened and twitching._ 'How dare she. How dare this little girl make a fool out of me. I'm PaniK, the Eliminator! I will show her the true meaning of fear!' _

Reaching over, PaniK's draw was so full of range that the heart of his deck must have felt it. The core of the cave must have been able to absorb the strong feeling. Amy could certainly feel it. But then that malevolence changed it's tune, and suddenly, as PaniK's eyes widened at his draw, it grew powerful. The card he drew was just the one he needed to put her in her place.

It seemed for a moment, that the man on the other side of the darkness was a demon. Though at this point, Amy didn't retract to the fear she had been feeling. She knew she had to believe that her cards would be the defensive wall she needed.

Although knowing some of the Estimator's tricks helped in it's own way. Somewhere in that deck, PaniK had the monster that could destroy 'Elf's Light' and ruin her, and she had the feeling he drew just the card. All Amy had to do was take a deep breath and remind herself she was prepared.

"It was foolish of you to reveal to me your trump card so soon." The card that PaniK just drew rested in his free hand. "Leaving it unprotected on the field, ready to be consumed by my cards was the last mistake you'll ever make. Once I destroy your 'Elf's Light' there will be nothing left to protect you."

_'It's time.'_ Amy thought. As he placed the card on the card on the field – hidden back in the shadows where 'Neo''s light couldn't reach, Amy put her hand down on one of her own.

"Meet the deadly 'Reaper of the Cards' who has the power to send magic cards to their grave. Including your little light show!" On the field, a cloaked figure swung a scythe with it's bony hands, dispelling the darkness momentarily as if it were just a mist. Just enough to catch a gimps of it's Grim Reaper appearance. The shadows soon surrounded it again, yet the 'Reaper' was only gone for a moment. 'Neo' seemed to look around for it on the field, looking this way and that, holding up it's magical light in protection. But in a single flashing second, the 'Reaper of the Cards' flew past 'Neo', the spellcaster looking back in shock. And just as 'Reaper' approached 'Elf's Light', raising it's scythe once more in coordination with it's Master's laughter that said "It's over for you, girl.", the impossible happened.

The 'Reaper' seemed to disappear.

Or to be more specific, a great hole appeared underneath the monster, and it fell through.

And of course, PaniK shouted "What?!" as everyone tends to do, Amy wiping a drop of sweat from the side of her face. "I'll admit PaniK, you had me worried for a second there. I almost thought I would mess up the timing and it would be too late. Things go a lot faster with these big fancy duel arenas, that's for sure."

"What are you going on about? What did you do to my 'Reaper'?!" he shouted, clearly with no time for Amy's riveting narration. So, she showed him, revealing her trap card, 'Trap Hole'.

"You really didn't think I'd let my winning cards go unprotected? I've sent your 'Reaper' away, and trapped him in his own darkness." The hole in the ground created by the trap card began to close. "I knew you'd try to pull something like that, you may be able to push people around, but magic knows no fear. So you'd have find another way to destroy it. I get it now PaniK, you're not the kind of guy who faces his fears, you're the kind who's cowardly enough to kill it first. That makes you so predictable." The Eliminator didn't say anything, only glaring across the field. So Amy held up two fingers for him to see. "Two cards. That's all I have have left. And all the time you have left until you lose. The clock is ticking PaniK, and you're running out of time. I can't attack your 'Castle', and you have no other cards on the field to defend you. This is your last turn, PaniK."

_'I hope.'_ Amy added mentally. PaniK still had 1280 life points, and she only had a handful of moves left. Amy looked down at the face down on her right. _'The fact that he made such a rash decision without considering a possible trap is a good sign, it means my bluff is getting to him. But the same bluff has put me in a tight spot. I know I can do a little more damage to his points with that, but it's not enough.'_ Her eyes then slid over to the card on her left._ 'If he plays defensively, I'm in trouble. I've got nothing else to protect my magic card, so if he makes another crack at it I'm done. I've got to get him to attack me. That last card is my last hope.'_ Finally, Amy took a depth but silent breath.

_'Yugi and the Pharaoh beat him, so I can too. They're right beside me, fighting the same struggle. I won't loose. I won't let you down, Yugi, I promise! This is how I'll prove to you that I'm on your side – by protecting you here!'_

"And you better make it a good one!" Amy shouted now, her voice significantly raised having inspired herself. In fact her appearance had all bu hardened again, creating an invincible wall of victory. More than shout she seemed to bellow from the bottom of her gut. "You'd better attack me this turn, because if you don't I'm taking you out for sure!"

"Attack you?!" the man, just a fiercely provoked, had now lost all patience with this girl, was so extremely agitated that he was loosing all control of his temper. "I'll destroy you!" He ripped the top card from his deck, a look of crazed satisfaction crossing his features. Rather than place it on the field, he picked up another card in his hand, slamming it on the console.

"I've got a card more powerful than you can imagine! My 'King of Yamimaki'. (2000/1530)" Once 'King of Yamimaki' appeared, his eyes seeping into the darkness, PaniK placed another card on the field. "Go on! Attack my monster if you've got the courage enough!"

_'His monster's still weaker than mine. That must be a trap, but I can't back down now. There's no turning back.'_ She looked to the left one more time. _'It all comes down to you. Please, let this work...!' _"I've got more than courage PaniK, I've got heart. And more importantly, I'm not a coward like you!" Amy pointed at her opponent for the last time, and as if 'Neo the Magic Swordsman' received her energy, he went charging, already ready on her command to attack.

As he approached 'Yamimaki', Neo's light began to dissolve the darkness. And then suddenly, the light went out. Chains shot out from the fog wrapped around 'Neo's magically illuminated hand.

"'Neo'!" The chains didn't stop there, they wrapped more and more until they tightly surrounded 'Neo's body. He attempted to struggle, but the dead eyes of 'Yamimaki' got closer and closer.

"That's right! Your precious warrior of light is trapped by my 'Shadow Spell' trap, nothing can escape it's chain, as they suck out the very life force that your monster draws on." The links now wrapped around 'Neo's legs, already compacted his torso. "You fell for my trap, and now you'll pay for it. I've beaten you, you worthless girl!"

_''Shadow Spell'?! That means...!'_ Amy gasped. 'Neo's points began dropping rapidly, from 2100, to 2000, to 1900, and all the way down to 1400.

"It's time! 'Yamimaki', destroy her warrior once and for all!"

So 'Yamimaki' began it's attack without hesitation. The chains moved down 'Neo's last free arm until it reached his wrist. Amy lunged for her face down cards, focused glued to the card on the left. Just as the 'Shadow Spell' wrapped itself around 'Neo's palms, and 'Yamimaki' lunged, another light appeared from 'Neo's fingertips, and the ball of light grew and grew until it engulfed the field. When it disappeared, 'Neo the Magic Swordsman' stood free of the trap, as strong and as brilliant as he was before.

Amy felt her heart skip a beat. "No PaniK, you fell into mine." She couldn't take her eyes off of 'Neo', and more specifically the object being held up by him. Before PaniK could furiously request an explanation, because there's an undeniable pattern here of Q &amp; As, she already started explaining. "You activated my fourth card 'Fairy's Hand Mirror', and that's the last mistake _you'll _make." It was the object 'Neo' was holding, a mirror adorned with jewels and elegant decorations.

"You neutralized my 'Shadow Spell'?!"

"Take a look in the mirror, PaniK. I didn't neutralize it," the reflection in the object gleamed, and PaniK squinted to see it more clearly. 'King of Yamimaki' could be seen through the darkness. Suddenly PaniK realized what she meant." I reversed it." The darkness cleared just enough to reveal a crystal image in that reflection. 'Yamimaki' cried out and struggled, wrapped in those same chains. (1300/1530)

'Neo' raised his sword to finish his attack, his points now raised back to it's mighty 2100. PaniK could do nothing but watch as his chain trapped monster was slain. And he was more than furious. He was done with this. If people could just flat out go Scanners, he would. The man shook in anger, gritted his teeth together so strong he might break them. And meanwhile, his life points dropped.

**Amy: 2000 lp**

**PainK: 480 lp**

"You destroyed my 'King of Yamimaki'!"

She tried to stay posies, back straight, proud and confident. Now wasn't the time to think, just to act. "I've done more than that. I've sealed your fate."

His eyes twisted, one open wider than the other, tiny beads of sweat now dropping down his clown face. "Don't be stupid! I've still got plenty of life points and you've only got one card left!"

Amy flipped over the aforementioned trap card, the last one lying face down on the field. "I told you, didn't I? That was your last turn! I'm ending this duel right now – go 'Solar Rays'." Light appeared from behind 'Neo' this time, holding still as it charged.

"I have no monsters on the field to attack accept my 'Castle', and that's in defense mode. You can't do anything thing to me!"

He was gone. Amy could see it in PaniK's face, in the way he reasoned, that he had lost it. If the man was as calm and ready as he was in the beginning, he would have realized what 'Solar Rays' was meant for. But instead, PaniK was jabbering on loosely, unable to think straight about the situation. He himself was panicking, slipping up, too consumed by anger and confusion. "I'm not attacking your monsters. You've been cowering behind that veil of shadows this entire time, hiding behind your cards because you're afraid. But this time you've got nothing to hide behind! I'm going straight for you!"

The beams of light shot out from behind 'Neo', the holy rays now releasing itself from its lingering state. They launched themselves at PaniK, engulfing him as he cried out – his life points hitting a comfortable flat line.

**Amy: 2000 lp**

**PaniK: 0 lp**

When the virtual arena faded, all was quiet. Not a sound from PaniK, and not a peep from Amy. She was waiting for him. In a few moments, it became clear that PaniK had completely lost himself in his rage, slumped over the console, fists balled up tight, cards scattered everywhere.

So finally, she let out a breath, and prepared the force of her next words. "You lost the moment you and Pegasus tried to drag Yugi Muto into this. Rather than try and coward behind idle threats, you should have faced me head on. It's too bad PaniK, but you're through here!"

"You dare call me a coward?! You dare call me afraid?! I am PaniK, the most deadly Eliminator on the island. I show you just how deadly!" In his rage, PaniK slammed down on the controls, making the flamethrowers go insane, shooting this was and that. The small precises stream of flames were the first to reach her, Amy screamed and covered her head. And then the wider flames kick in - that surrounded her entire half of the ring.

Surrounded in flames, heat pouring down, Amy felt fear once again. She looked for a brief second, hoping for some escape, and realized once more that she was trapped. Trapped. How familiar.

A thought, a flashback, enforced itself into Amy's consciousness. The last time she was trapped like this, the day she ruined everything. Being face with inescapable odds, looking ahead to nothing but death and destruction born from her own stupid mistakes. The day that all she wanted was to be good enough, and instead proved how worthless she was. Burning pain emanated from Amy's shoulder, and she cried out because of it – bellowing in horror – even though the girl knew that this time she hadn't been hurt. Not yet anyways. But her body was remembering that horrible stigma of pain as it remembered to vividly everything else.

She didn't want to die then. She didn't want to die now.

And suddenly, an embrace surrounded her. A comforting presence cradled the girl's spirit, and her mind. And at that moment, Amy realized she wasn't in her body anymore. Her body was being moved by the will of someone else, as she rested safely inside her own mind. The heat disappeared. The pain disappeared. It all went away.

In her place facing the flames was Amiee. Amiee stood against the fire a troubled look on her face, not fear, but determination. Her eyes analyzed the situation, looking for a way out of it. Magic emitted from her bracelet warding off the flames. As if they were thrust into some protective bubble, the fire blew in awkward patterns being pushed away.

"PaniK, I won't let you get away with tormenting people anymore." Amiee's tone was more feminine than Amy's, having lost it's sarcastic edge. Her underlining anger was now replaced with a sense of calm and control. More than anything else, maturity.

The flames straight ahead cleared, allowing PaniK and Amiee to look at each other. The man couldn't believe his eyes, watching the fire make an impossible gap. And what his saw was Amiee's hands folded, eyes closed in prayer. "I call to Ra and to the great white dragon to act in authority to purify this soul in the light, or destroy it in the darkness. By bidding of your humble servant may the gods do judgment on this man's soul." And then she released her hands, holding them together, palms up, offering to PaniK his judgment.

He fell backwards and disappeared from sight, tumbling off the edge of his platform. The flames died, turning off suddenly, and the anklets released her. When the duel platform hit the ground, Amiee gathered the deck and walked away, not turning back. Instead, she rubbed the Millennium Bracelet gently.

"You're safe now my vessel. You did wonderfully."

And then Amy could feel her own legs again. Her mind processed her own weight, a surprise she wasn't prepared for. Her body dropped onto her hands and knees, taking in deep breaths. "It's... over? What happened... Did Amiee... did she save me?" Even though Amiee didn't have a physical body of her own? _'Thank you, Amiee.' _Tears welled up in the girls eyes. Perhaps, Amy realized, she was wrong. She had more than Yugi, Amiee was with her the whole time.

Yugi. Thinking of him just made a wave of loneliness wash over her. PaniK was beaten, and now, he wasn't here anymore. Looking for some sort of comfort, Amy got up slowly, her arms now crossed and grasping onto the sleeves of the slightly singed blazer. Would he be proud? Would he ever know what she had done? Probably not.

All Amy could do was head out of the tunnel. At first she didn't think anything, her mind heavy with the shadows of her looming memories. But those clouds cleared. Her thoughts wandered to that of the duel.

_'I can't believe 'Fairy's Hand Mirror'... actually worked. The odds of him playing a card it could counter was phenomenally low._' she pondered, the thoughts moving like molasses through her tiered brain. Considering all the ways the duel could have gone, it seemed improbable that she would have been lucky enough to come out victorious. PaniK drawing 'Shadow Spell', her bluffing on a random yet somehow successful line up of cards. There is no luck in the world that should be that successful. And not just that, the 'Pot of Greed ' she drew, the 'Reload'. It didn't seem possible that everything could come together like it did.

At the exit of the cave, just as Amy was coming to grips with her thoughts, she saw a body awaiting her. Croquet stood at the entrance waiting for her to approach.

"Mr. Pegasus would like to congratulation you on your successful victory. Now please accept your prizes." he held and Eliminators glove and star chips.

"Tell Mr. Pegasus to go shove it up his [4filter]." she muttered, pulling the switch and exiting the cave. Croquet followed her, staying only inches away.

"He insists that you accept." the tone in the man's voice was so dry and tasteless. He thrust the gloves and chips towards Amy's face, and she angrily smacked them away.

"I told you to shove it, okay?!" her voice rose higher and higher.

The objects on the ground and no longer in Croquet's possession considered his task done. So the man bowed, saying "As you wish Miss Amy." And turned around to take his leave.

After he had completely disappeared, Amy stumbled over to the Star Chips she rejected, lifting one up. "We did it. You're safe Yugi... I protected you, just like I promised..." she put both of them in the palm of her hand now, watching them gleam in the daylight until that gleam disappeared. And she realized, that was took that shine away way a shadow being cast over her.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: At Her Hand

[On Track]/[Extra]

Disclaimer: (drumroll) Takahashi (end drumroll)

Narrator's Note: Today on 'I don't give a [4filter] what you think', I present you an [Extra] chapter. But how? We're in the middle of Duelist Kingdom how can these things not be plot related?! Well, because its a whole bunch of info dumping. That right, we've finally got to one of the moments were Amy explains herself and has (drumroll) flashbacks. In this case the italics are a flashback scene. A development chapter. Boo at me and throw all the rotten tomatoes you want, you'll never hit me because I'm just text.

Today Amy confesses to a certain mysterious someone (its Tristan) her business relationship with Pegasus. She explains why she got involved in Pegasus and what her role in creating DK was. You'll also finally get a chance to hear a little more on what all this 'I no de futur lolol', though naturally it'll only be a passing statement to build up to the drop down character development chapter for the future that will be all about Amy and explain her back story to its fullest.

Yeah, the chapter's a lot shorter than regular. After beating PaniK I thought staying on track would be a nice clean transition to the next part of the story. I've already made some mental notes that could be decent adjustments in the rewrite, which as I work on I'll still ask for some feedback. I'll even ask... nicely. P...Plea... ugh this is so hard. Please rate and review. Honestly I'm so curious on opinions of the story, of Amy and Amiee, or my Narrating (writing), and it's driving my binary batty.

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**Chapter Thirteen - Looking At Her Hand: "we already forgave you!"**

Alternate Titles: Confession, Character Development, Tristan Punches a Girl

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Now, some of you may have noticed the parallel in this scene. As if to hint to whom the mysterious shadow was, I'd like to remind you that this isn't the first time this has happened. Of course, Amy, herself, also figured out the parallel, falling for a distinct sense of deja vu.

Grasping the Star Chips tightly, she brought her fist closer to her chest. And while Amy wanted to be snarky and angry, she just couldn't bring herself to be. So instead the girl simply sighed, saying, "Alright Tristan, how much of that did you see?"

He considered his words carefully. Tristan had an abundance of things to say and questions to ask, but if he had learned anything, it was that probing Amy didn't suit him. That was a job for one of the others who she seemed to open up information to. So in the end it seemed like the less thinking the better.

"Enough to see you whimpering like a baby." Tristan responded after a moment of silence, deciding to blurt the first snarky comment that pop out. He had seen her exit the secret tunnel with one of Pegasus's goons, but he had also seen her throw away all that he offered her. Of course these conflicting images left him in a difficult position, unaware of what to make of the scene. But the gang had resolved to trust her in the end.

"Well that's specific." Amy reacted to this surprisingly well. One would think with her levels of pride, the notion of someone observing any of her weakness would be outright taboo – but in this moment there was something different about her. In the last hour, Tristan could tell that something big had definitely happened. "Don't you have duels you're supposed to be watching?" Rather than anger, a sense of cold bitterness illuminated.

"We had to split up and find you before we could do anything." Tristan put his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he spoke. "You just up and disappeared!"

Waiting for a retort, Tristan watched as Amy slipped something into the pocket of Yugi's blazer. Using the ground and a nearby tree to push herself up, Amy leaned on that trunk, back still to Tristan.

"Weevil was right, you know. I haven't been totally level with you guys." From behind, it was hard to tell whether Amy was starring at the void of nature ahead. But in reality, the girl was having a difficult time keeping her eyes open. She was nodding off and waking up, her lids weighing heavy over her eyes. The world was blurry, then black, then blurry again. "More than anyone else, I owe you and Yugi a proper explanation."

Tristan didn't dare say a word.

Between the sluggish state she had awoken from, and her heavy duel with PaniK, Amy was beat. She could identify the feeling this time, understanding this pure feeling of mental and physical exhaustion. But before anything else, before she could rest comfortably, Amy knew that she had to get this off her mind. After trying so hard not to become emotionally invested in these people, the last duel with like a punch to the stomach. No matter what she wanted or what she tried to tell herself, the girl knew the truth – if she was going to continue on, she needed them. Needed the company and encouragement of Yugi and the others.

Which meant, even if it was just Tristan for now, Amy had to come clean. She couldn't hold the weight of all her secrets anymore. [4filter], I could even go so far as to say that she wanted to tell him.

"You were right to suspect me from the very beginning. I've got to give you credit Tristan, your natural gang busters instinct really proved to be impressive. It's true that I do know Pegasus, and I've know about everything that's going on.

"Some time a year or so ago, a situation arose, and I knew I needed to find Yugi Muto. A..." Amy paused at this point, looking down at her bracelet. "...friend of mine desperately needed Yugi's help. So I had to leave home and find him. But I... I ran out of money. With no way to get to Domino, I needed some kind of finances."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

_Amy sat at a bright table, sprinkled with napkin bits and coffee rings. In one hand sat a burger, wrapped in mild yellow paper. In the other a pen moved around another napkin, scribbling notes left and right. She sat next to a window, beams of light gazing down at her, and the parking lot located within viewing range._

_Taking another bite of her burger, Amy scribbled a circle around a single word – a name actually. Pegasus. She than circled the name right under it, Marik._

_'So the first major pain in the [4filter] is going to be Pegasus, it that right?' Amy glanced to the side. Sitting next to her, transparent to all other eyes was Amiee, who nodded briefly._

_'I believe that was his name...'_

_Amy resisted rolling her eyes, knowing the spirit meant well. 'Well, there's only one creator of Duel Monsters, and his name is Maximillon Pegasus.' Putting the pen down, Amy reached for some fries piled on a nearby tray. 'This Yugi kid must have a lot of [4filter] taking on all these cooperate giants. Kaiba Corp., Industrial Illusions, and Paradius.'_

_Looking disinterested, Amiee nodded. Her view was focused purely out the window, watching the clouds go by, mind off somewhere else. So Amy, french fry resting comfortably in her mouth, leaned back in her booth and starred up at the ceiling. There was a lot of things she didn't understand yet, like the premise of ancient magic and the monsters reincarnated into trading cards idea, but one thing she did fully understand was that Amiee had no interest in this 'Yugi' kid. She couldn't care less about him. All that mattered was the driving force behind Yugi – an ancient pharaoh whom Amiee once served when she was alive._

_God that was a weird sentence. Even now Amy had a hard time grasping the cinematic nonsense that she had been spitting out lately. If Amiee wasn't constantly present, she might have even started to doubt that this was real. That the vision she saw was some kind of dream after all. Looking down at her hand Amy's thoughts drifted back to that moment. To the moment those hands touched the bracelet that now rested on her wrist. When her and Amiee first made contact. In a quick blink Amy went from starring at the object, to watching Yugi's heroics play out. From the moment he defeated Seto Kaiba to the Ceremonial Battle, Amy watched it all as an onlooker. She woke up in the hospital realizing that while she was dreaming, three day had gone by. Three days of viewing a vision that she originally had nothing to do with._

_Getting to this point seemed like almost a dream. Every thought, every action since then had been focused around that visionary world. Amy's entire life had become centered around this ancient spirit and her loyal desires. And now things were at the point of no return – the drastic action she had taken left her with only the ability to move forward._

_Straight towards Yugi Muto and company._

_Yugi Muto felt like a myth. He seemed like some kind of story in a book, a piece of dueling mythology. A mystical creature just out of the grasps of reality. Amy was riding on faith, sailing blindly out into the open chasing a story. And lets just say that it's pump of adventurous adrenaline had yet to run out. For the moment at least, the girl had no regrets, and no time to look back. This was her new adventure._

_But of course, regrets or no regrets, this wasn't like a simple RPG quest. Amy knew that her next move was critical – mostly because Domino was so far away. The girl had the will to get there, but certainly not the means. She looked down at her wrist mindlessly eyeing the bracelet and turned her joint to the side. A shimmer from the window pane reflected around the eye. If only she had someone she could confide in, someone with money to spare._

_Past her wrist, the scribbled napkin of notes sat, and suddenly it came into clear view. One circled word in particular caught her eye. 'Pegasus!' Amiee jumped, surprised but the sudden mental declaration._

_'Pegasus?' _

_Amy crumpled up her trash and discarded the adjoining tray. It had been under her nose the whole time. The answer to all her problems – financial, transportation, identity. Maximillon Pegasus was a business man, borderline insane but a business man none the less. And a business man is always open for a deal if she could provide a sweet enough one._

_But what could she possibly have that Pegasus wanted? Amy paused. An idea. What Amy had was an idea, and idea that Pegasus needed. An idea that she'll steal right from under his nose. What Amy had was Duelist Kingdom. If she could propose the idea of getting Cecila back through Yugi and Duelist Kingdom before he thought of it, then he would have to let her in as a business partner._

_Or just throw her out._

_Yeah, that could happen too. He could take the idea and toss her out on the curb, call security, or even the much more creative taking her soul. That would be bad._

_This was going to be tricky._

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"I didn't see any other way, so I found Pegasus. We became partners in the business venture that's known as Duelist Kingdom. The tournament itself was my idea. Well, sort of. In a way we were on the same page, at least about dueling. What Pegasus did to Grandpa was his own twisted idea, but I can't say that it surprised me. I could see it in his face that he was plotting something else, ever since the first day we met."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

_Once again, Amy found herself sitting at a table. Only this one wasn't covered in coffee stains and streaks from poor cleaning. In fact the table was quite ritzy, the room was elegant and a clear change of environment. Already it seemed like she was being thrust into this bizarre world of Yugi Muto._

_Naturally, she wasn't quite there, but this room reminded certainly reminded her that she was getting ever closer._

_And once again, it seemed to Amy like she was in the blur of a dream. Only in this dream – she was the one playing card games. Which would explain why there were trading cards in her hands instead of a burger. Placing her 'Mystical Elf' in a set defense position, Amy closed her eyes and pictured the 'Ancient Elf'. She found it difficult at first to wrap around the false reality sitting in her mind. Amy had to believe that she played 'Ancient Elf', without a doubt in her heart. For this to succeed, her own memory needed to be purposely manipulated._

_A power thrust itself through her mental barriers. Being prepared for this moment was critical, and would probably make or break the whole plan. 'The card I played was 'Ancient Elf'.'_

_'The card I played was 'Ancient Elf'.' That it, mentally repeat it over and over. Believe it unconditionally, imagine it. Forget about everything else and focus._

_"Oooh! 'Ancient Elf'! How scary. But not nearly scary enough." Snickered a voice from across the table. A flamboyant voice that would become all too familiar. Her opponent laid a monster in attack mode._

_There were no holographic sparks this time, no, because this wasn't the high tech Duel Rings of Duelist Kingdom. It was simply a tabletop game of Duel Monsters in the office of Maximillon Pegasus. However, seeing the 'Red Archery Girl' dropped on the field in attack mode sent Amy's heart aflutter. She was nervous. She was scarred. She was playing a dangerous game._

_One duel. That was all the chance that Pegasus was giving her. Amy had one chance to impress the billionaire and convince him to hear out her proposal. The eye placed on top the bracelet was the only reason she had gotten this far. But it wasn't enough on it's own, Amy had to show that she had power, that she was interesting enough to be integrated into the "plans" that she knew must be formatting in his mind right now._

_For a moment, Amy was frightened that her 'Ancient Elf' had been destroy, and almost discarded it immediately. Then, to both her and Pegasus's surprise, Amy flipped over 'Mystical Elf' instead and she realized that her focus._

_The shock passed from Pegasus within moments and left him with a beam of interest. "Somehow you managed to trick my eye. How fascinating!"_

_Passing off confidence where she had little, truly this was Amy's personal special talent. Combined with her other talent of lying made for a constructive hand. "The power from my Millennium Item allows me to sense the intentions of others, and Mr. Pegasus, I can sense your Eye's intention to read my mind." It was a bluff, or course, but it was close enough to the truth. Amy's item didn't technically have such a power, at least not one that she had discovered. However it did show her the future that one time, allowing her to make educated guesses at the intentions of others. So, Amy decided that this little white lie would be the perception of her "powers" - after all, she couldn't very well go into a battle of ancient magic without any of her own. The phrase goes "never bring a knife to an [invisible] gun fight", which rang more wisdom than you could possibly imagine, only in this case its more like, "never bring a dud to a mystical artifacts fight". Much less catchy._

_He smirked again. "What an exquisite imagination you must have to be able to defend against such an attack. Now what were you saying earlier," Pegasus set another card in his Trap/Spell Zone, "about a tournament?"_

_Oh yeah, what a great freaking imagination._

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"But I didn't stop it. I didn't stop any of the things Pegasus has done since then. I may not have done any of them myself, but when the time came I rode the wave of his bad deeds for my own benefit. So I didn't have to get my hands dirty." Amy leaned more of her weight on the tree. Her voice got softer and softer, overwhelmed with guilt as she summarized her story, parts of it flashing back as she thought of what to say. And as she rounded to the point, realizing the feelings that she really wanted to express, once again Amy found herself looking at her hands. "I let Pegasus take me in and took advantage of all the bad things he did. I know that makes me terrible, worse than Pegasus. I'm just as guilty for all this as he is, if not guiltier. I know it's too late to ask for everyone to forgive me... for lying... for keeping secrets... for letting everyone suffer..." Small dots of tears welled up in the corner of her eyes, but none of them fell. They just stayed. "And an apology won't do any good now, it won't fix my sins. And it won't bring Grandpa back. But, Tristan, I..."

As she let out those few words, Amy started to turn around, to face her sins head on. This would be the moment that she would graduate from cowardice. And so she turned to look her guilt in the eye, but was unexpectedly sent in a completely different direction when Tristan's fist met her face. Which, naturally in turn let to planting onto the ground.

"Sorry," Tristan rubbed his fist, "the last thing you said just pissed me off. I can't believe after all this time you don't get it, we already forgave you! You tried to stop us from watching the video tape when it came in, and then you took care of everyone afterwards. Stop living in the past, man, so you did some things you regret, so what! But you're with us now and that's what matters. Now come on, are we going to find the others and watch some duels or what?"

He paused his oh-so-engaging speech, waiting for a reply. But from the ground, Amy didn't move nor did she mutter, and he was met with silence. So Tristan, sounding more harsh than ever said, "Come on, quit sulking already and get up!"

Still nothing.

"Amy?" his tone did a three-sixty flip as Tristan began to inch closer. And as her sleeping face came into view Tristan Taylor realized just what he had done. "Oh crap! Amy?! But I didn't even hit you that hard!"

The whole thing was quite comical really, as he frantically muttered out the possibility of knocking his friend out cold, Amy slept with a smile resting across her face. Her chest raising up and down peacefully, lips parting softly in an upward curve. She didn't do this because a frantic Tristan is a funny Tristan, but because of the words she heard right before she slipped into unconsciousness. The phrase that allowed sleep to be peaceful for the first time in a long while. _'We already forgave you._'. The tear that been waiting patiently in the corner of her eye finally began to roll down her smiling face.


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Amy's Soul Room

[On Track]

Disclaimer: 4Kids is dead. They have passed away. But I'm sure they care about this disclaimer.

Narrator's Note: Another chapter that I'm sure you completely care about.

If I had eyes I would totally be rolling them right now. But I don't so I'll just leave that to your imagination. I'll also leave the rest of the story to your imagination if you want, but there's also another portion of it below. Just sayin, you could always read that instead.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen - Amy's Soul Room?: "Joey's probably on that ring right now, debunking Mai's aroma strategy and preparing his counterattack"**

Alternate Titles: The Plot Progresses, Triple Trouble, I Hate Chapter Titles

* * *

"Where are those guys?" the noise that came from Tristan was very frustrated. He had been waiting here by the stairs for a few dull minutes, and the time felt like it passed like broken clockwork. Meaning it hadn't. At all. Once or twice he questioned the meeting point, but was time and time again sure that Yugi had said the bottom of the stairs. The last thing Tristan needed was to have to go off on a mission to find the rest of his friends as well.

And with his luck they'd end up passed out like Amy, and then he'd have to carry them all.

That was a preposterous, if not amusing notion but one that steamed from Tristan's clear embarrassment. He glanced over his shoulder once again only to find Amy's sleeping face clonked lazily to the side. Yeah, I'd say there was a good change he was trying to mentally overcompensate for this accident.

Tristan had knocked people out before – in fact he and Joey had a history for it back in grammar school – but never quite like this. Getting into fights was one thing, but knocking out someone unsuspecting in one punch just seemed wrong. And it wasn't like Amy had been purposely provoking him this time, but he certainly didn't expect her of all people to take it this badly.

I mean, he'd never purposely knock out a helpless _girl_.

Scoffing, the man eyed everything. He tried to find anything to focus on besides this. It wasn't until now that Tristan even thought of Amy as girl, never mind a woman his own age. If anything she had been this tough little brother, always whining and needing to be looked after while she tried to run with her own agenda. It wasn't until he saw her unconscious on the ground did it really click: Oh crap, I just punched out a chick. Then: Oh crap I punched out my friend. And finally just: Oh crap.

You didn't choose thug life Tristan. It chose you.

And now what was left was to carry the girl on his back until she woke up or he reunited with the gang. This was the worst part, anticipating the kind of lecture he was going to get from Téa. The entire line of scolding. He just wanted to get the moment over with. Think of needing to get a needle full of vaccine or morphine where the waiting is worse than the shot itself; yeah, it's that kind of wait. To add onto everything, Amy's face was pressed against his shoulders and arms wrapped loosely around his neck, which among other things was extremely uncomfortable. This whole situation was the formula for a chemical explosion.

Where were the guys? This wouldn't be so bad if he just had something to distract him. But with no one showing up and being out in the middle of no where, his mind just kept wandering back. Her head turned slightly.

This was getting so hard to endure.

Until finally, where it may have only been truly a few minutes, Tristan's hours of waiting silently came to a wrap. All it took was a white haired 4Brit who came wandering over, face unsure at first as he seemed to be lost, but then seeing Tristan, expression completely flopped. Bakura rushed towards the two saying something inaudible. His voice could be heard, but the words on the other hand were nothing but a mess of scribbles.

"Whoa, calm down Bakura, where's the fire?" Tristan called out. A cheesy cliché line perfectly scripted and thought through to fit the 4kids dialogue.

Finally, Bakura was close enough to hear. "Tristan, hurry, Joey's in a duel!"

"Joey's in a duel?" Tristan's eyebrow raised slightly. Somehow this didn't surprise his widely, they should have thought someone would try to attack when they were at their weakest. He hoped that Joey would have the intelligence to ignore any challenges until they regrouped, but it seemed as if he was asking too much.

So Bakura nodded, eager to say more. And naturally, because the next part was the juiciest part, the big kicker. "And it get's worse, the person he's dueling is Mai."

Now that was unexpected. And more than that, not good. It may not be as bad as Joey dueling someone internationally famous such as Rex Raptor, but there was no real gauge on Mai's skill set or strategy, except that she was good and merciless. Mai wasn't certainly going to go down like Weevil. "Well what are we waiting for? We've got to get over there."

Amy's grip tightened slightly around Tristan's neck, just enough to remind him he was there. Her face shifted back and forth, and some words seemed to mutter out of her lips. "..b...fne." He couldn't quite make out what she said, but it sounded like a muddled version of "be fine". But aside from that there was no indication that she had otherwise woken up. If anything she appeared to be talking in her sleep.

Bakura paused and leaned over, finally noticing the strange mass growing out of Tristan's back. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't a part of Tristan at all, but a person that he knew. He gasped, "You found Amy. What happened to her?"

Not wishing to return to this subject, Tristan cleared his throat. "Where's Joey and the others?" He started to walk forward, with no idea what direction to go, but anything to get moving again. Bakura seemed taken aback by this, but politely guided Tristan to the meadow arenas.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

One spotlight shinned on Amy. She blinked a few times, squinting her eyes and trying to adjust. From this position, surrounded by light, Amy couldn't see much of the world outside her bright glow. But what she could see was the details right in front of her, a stove top with a pan resting on top.

"This is...new?" Making sure there was nothing in the pan, Amy lifted it up to examine it. The object looked rather worn out, seeming to have been used several times. It wasn't the cooking medium that was new, but this whole place.

A minute ago she had been batting fists with Tristan. Well sort of anyways. And now she was here, in some sort of kitchen most likely. "This can't be a dream." Amy muttered to herself. The fact that she was consciously aware enough of the possibility of the set up being a dream meant that it wasn't. That time she checked you couldn't recognize a dream while in a dream.

There was the possibility that she had died and gone to Hell. Maybe when Tristan punched her she fell the wrong way on a root and traveled to the big underbelly in the ground. But that was unlikely, if not wishful thinking seeing as the show was run by 4Kids. And it ruled out the Shadow Realm do to a lack of Shadow Games. Unless everything Amy saw was wrong and Tristan was secretly an evil sorcerer, it was safe to say that she hadn't transcended plains, big purple-y cloudy thing or not.

"Very perceptive, welcome to your Soul Room, Amy!" cooed a quiet voice. The spotlight went out as all the other lights turned on. Peaking halfway in the door, Amiee stood, finger having reached over and flicked on the lights. The rest of her remained hidden behind the door, but clearly just as reserved as ever. "May I come in?"

Right, Soul Room was her next guess. Naturally. Which meant, if this was anything like Yugi's Soul Room, on the other side of the door lay Amiee's room. Amy had neighbors. "Yeah, sure why not. It's not like you don't live here too." The more she thought about it, the more the Soul Room concept seemed like an apartment complex. It really put the "two people living in one body" aspect into perspective.

Now that she got a good look at the room, Amy realized that it was rather large. Counter tops and cooking utensils lined the room. Stove tops, ovens, a refrigerator and freezer. And over in the corner lay a table set up with white boards and a strange looking light. Out of the whole area that looked to be the cleanest.

Amy eyed a utensil in the corner. "Is that a rice cooker?" she rushed over to it, picking it up and looking at the device up and down. "My Soul Room has a rice cooker? I always wanted one of these, but we never picked one up." Putting it down and wrapping the cord up neatly, Amy continued to let her mouth run with her thoughts. "You know what goes real good with rice that's easy to make? Curry. Seriously, it only takes an hour at best, and that's if you don't know what you're doing. I also made this raspberry vinaigrette sautéed vegetable once that made a mean side to rice."

"I guess you really were telling Bakura the truth when you said you liked to cook." Amiee's eyes seemed to gauge ever inch of the room as well. In fact Amy had a sneaking suspicion that she was analyzing it far more than Amy. It was no secret that the two weren't exactly open with each other, so Amiee seemed to be taking this chance to learn things about her partner she never did before.

Amy rubbed her shoulder and sneered. "Yeah well, what a waste of time this place is. The key word in that sentence was 'liked' as in 'I've got one too many scars to prove I don't like it anymore'." She pushed the rice cooker into place and walked away promptly, turning her back on that area of the kitchen.

Clearing her throat, Amiee changed the subject to something new. She gestured to the table set up and began looking it over. "What's this for."

"Taking pictures of the food."

Brightening, Amiee asked, "How does it work?"

Darkening, Amy answered, "Never mind how it works! Why are we even here?"

Amiee, like a small animal, instantly regressed. Her face strained in nervousness and surprise. Amy got the feeling like her bitter answer was uncalled for, but there was no taking it back now.

"Your soul was in turmoil, so it thought fit to pull you back in for a rest."

"And?"

"And... Tristan knocked you unconsciousness."

There's the answer that Amiee was beating around the bush for.

The pride instantly walled up. "That stinking twit! How dare he kick me while I was down!" She was all but ready to crawl her way up to the top of a counter and make her deceleration. As if Tristan was there with them, in the room. "Next time I see him he's getting such a butt whooping. Joey will be fine, Tristan you crap-hat!" Amy bellowed this from the bottom of her gut, tactfully replacing [4filter]-hat with crap-hat. Then she paused, just as confused as you, the reader was by that last line. Since when was she talking about Joey? Where did that even come from? Rest assured in the fact that it wasn't a simple typo on my part.

"The hell?" Amy turned her head up and down, looking across the room trying to pinpoint a reason for her side track outburst. "Where did that come from? Joey sure as hell better not be getting in my head."

"Your body can still process information from the outside world while in this state. And Tristan and Bakura were talking about Joey's duel."

"...And that means?" Our stubborn main character crossed her arms, waiting for the connection to come together.

"You're stating your subconscious opinion where its relevant."

"Oh." shifting to putting her hands on her hips, Amy rolled her eyes. "So even when I'm unconscious I can't keep the Peanut Gallery closed. Fabulous." That last part was filled with bitter sarcasm. Actually the whole thing was. "But it's true, Joey will be just fine. Tristan severally underestimates him, I know he's just being a concerned friend, but that's no way to treat someone. Especially your friends.

"Joey's probably on that ring right now, debunking Mai's aroma strategy and preparing his counterattack, all he ever needs is a good leg up..."

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"Now way! How could an amateur punk like you see through my aroma strategy?!" Mai Valentine gasped, her voice becoming shrill in it's blunt disbelief. The best part of that sentence is knowing that the time was taken to insert 'amateur' into the description. Of course, this is the detail that made the whole situation so unbelievable. Joey Wheeler was the embodiment of the underdog, and that's a title that one can only get with a notable lack of experience. And after all of the experienced duelists Mai had managed to tumble to the ground, how could a nobody overcome her?

Perhaps it was that fresh meat that made Joey be able to clear his head. There was no flashback of past losses, nothing to look back to while Mai mercilessly pulled the strings. Joey only had the ability to go forward – he couldn't be scared into looking back. The busty blond didn't account for that. This is what made the duel "just impossible".

"I gotta admit, Mai, you really had me buying into the psychic power shtick. I was too freaked out to think things through because of that." And then came the oblivious declaration. "But you're not a physic at all, you're just a big fake!"

It would be an understatement to say that Joey wasn't teaming with a new resolve right now. With Yugi and Téa watching over him, cheering him on every step of the way, a little victory like this made all the difference. It made this moment even more power. Because not only did Joey feel better, he knew that he looked better. With other people feeling the same way he did, and sending that energy to him. This was Joey's time to take back the game.

On the flip side, Mai wasn't quite so dazzled by the "Alright Joey."s and the "You get her, Joey."s appearing from the audience. If you asked her it was all a little much, especially from the loosing team. "Just because you saw through my little psychic act," Mai leaned over the duel ring furiously, "doesn't mean you're going to be able to defeat me in a duel." An armature is still an amateur after all.

"I think you're wrong." Mai felt her face twitch. The nerve of some people. "Before you were winning confusing me and tryin' to pit me against my friends, but now my mind is clear. I know who I can trust. All you've got left is your cheap tricks." Wrong. She still had Harpies. Three of them soon. Ready to tare Joey apart. "And I'm not falling for them anymore."

As Joey reached for a card in his hand, Mai let out an involuntary "Uh." What could he possibly have to go up against these three beasts.

"I'm going to blast your Harpy out of the sky with this." He placed the card on the field.

Yami nodded from the sidelines. "Good card, Joey." What good card? What was it? Mai resisted the urge to stretch her neck to see it across the field.

"'Baby Dragon'."

Baby... Dragon...? That's what he was sending out on the field? A baby against three angry clawed woman with no presumable maternal instincts? Joey couldn't be serious. Sure enough, the hologram of the baby appeared on the Duel Ring, screeching its little head off.

He was serious. Mai couldn't help but burst out laughing at all the internal tension she had built up. "That whimpy card was your grand play? I only wish it was worth some ore so when I devastate you is would do more damage to your life points."

Mai played her 'Elegant Egotist' spell card. "Its magic will make duplicate of my 'Harpy's Lady'."

Joey shouted, "Oh no!" in surprise and flinched a little. He definitely wasn't expecting this. Poor twerp, but Mai reasoned that he was asking for it, acting all high and mighty. Mai promptly introduced each of the three Harpies as they appeared.

"It's three times the trouble!"

"Now what?" Téa said, directing her question towards Yugi. "He was struggling when there was only one." Mother Goose looked around for a brief second. "I wish Tristan would hurry up and get here, Joey needs all the support he can get."

Without his eyes leaving the duel, Yami Yugi answered her. "Joey's got this Téa. Believe in him. Mai has a serious flaw in her strategy, and Joey can see that."

He could? Joey looked at his hand. It was clear that he was growing anxious again, but at least this time it wasn't because of an unknown force. He didn't have any cards strong enough to beat three 'Harpy Lady's, but there had to be something. What was the flaw, that Yugi spoke of, Mai's defense around her 'Harpy Lady' was nearly flawless. Like she was protecting her most important treasure.

"We believe in you Joey." shouted Bakura, unexpectedly of course. "We're all behind you one hundred percent." All eyes turned to Tristan and Bakura rushing towards the Ring. Bakura himself seemed to be growing more and more out of breath, but Tristan was still going strong. He approached the group without so much of an extra huff.

No, maybe 'Harpy Lady' wasn't Mai's most important treasure, but her only treasure. It was possible that 'Harpy Lady' was her only monster, and that's why ever turn the blond woman was making her more and more powerful. Instead of building and army, Mai was raising a giant.

"That's right, we made it on time so don't go messing it up!" Tristan shouted.

Time. That word echoed through Joey's thoughts. It gave him an idea, the only card he had in his deck that might be able to stop her Harpies and destroy the only offense she had.

'Time Wizard'. The card that Yugi gave him on the ship. Joey flashed back to that moment, what was it that he and Amy said?

_'It can be helpful in a tight spot.'_

_'Especially for someone as lucky as you.'_

Now bored of Joey's blank face and his prolonged thought process, Mai was was growing impatient. For course, instead of telling you that, I could have shown you by letting you hear what she said instead. It would have sounded something like, "If I had known how long it would take you to make a move, I would have brought a magazine."

Meanwhile, Joey searched his hand. None of them were the 'Time Wizard', not one. He glanced down at his deck. Drawing it would be his last hope. But what if... what if he didn't get it? What would he do then?

"Go fer et you nimrowd!" A female voice shouted. And it didn't stop there, the voice continued it's slurred and sleepy speech. "Trust in yur freggin cards."

Amy was right, he couldn't punk out now. Joey had to put his trust in his cards, he had to draw and trust in whatever it gave him. Taking a breath, Joey put his hand on the top card and realved the print to be...

Hold on. A record sound stop made the blond pause.

Amy?

For the second time in the last few minutes, all eyes were on Tristan and Bakura. More specifically they were now looking towards the source of the unexpected encouragement. Amy head was lifted up slightly her mouth opening wide to shout. However, her eyes were still very much closed, and the rest of her body still very limp. Tristan knew his face was lighting up.

In the heat of battle, the others hadn't yet notices Amy slumped over his back. But now that was spoiled. As soon as the last words left her mouth, the girl's face instantly sunk back into Tristan's back. Her nose nestled gently into the fabrics of her carrier.

"Is that Amy?" Téa asked.

To answer this, Tristan found it wise to clear his throat. "Oh yeah. Yeah it is. She's...asleep. At least I thought."

"When I found Tristan, he had already located her. She'd been sleeping ever since." Bakura leaned over to the side. He lifted one hand and began it to wave it in front of her still face. Nothing followed, save for her light NREM breaths. "It seems like she still might be."

To Yami's surprise, he was suddenly booted out, Yugi unknowing taking full control again. Before the short boy could say anything, the group was rudely interrupted.

"Um, hello? Still waiting over here. " Mai was leaning over the Duel Ring, more annoyed and bored than before.

"Play the cerd..." escaped a mummer, barely audible, from Amy's lips. It seemed as if even she was getting bored of waiting.

A metaphorical light bulb licked on in Joey's head, and he looked down at the new card. And that "Oh yeah" expression changed to that of an "Oh YEAH". "I got it, I got the card!"

"Great, anytime you want to play it so I can beat you would be great." Now observing a chip in her middle nail, Mai could only wait for this pointless jump to defeat. Or so she thought. As soon as 'Time Wizard' entered the field, her curiosity was peaked again. "Hm? What good is that thing?"

"Don't you know? The 'Time Wizard' can make time go faster, causing my 'Baby Dragon' to grow into a 'Thousand Dragon'."

Yugi cut in here. "That's right Joey, and that's not the only effect your 'Time Wizard' will have."

The holograms on the stage turned purples and red, as the monster raised its staff, sucking both it and the dragon in. And in the place of the two sat an age old dragon, snarling grumpily out only his front lawn.

And from there, well, you know the rest. And soon will Mai, as she watched her aged Harpies get smoked. Resulting in one more proudly glowing star on Joey's gauntlet. Oh, that, and a friendship speech.


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Fish Guy

[On Track]

Disclaimer: I'm sure they care so much.

Narrator's Note: It's Mako Time everyone. The plot is just moving along so fast isn't it. You know what? I've been thinking... hey. Hey are you listening to me? I'm trying to say something important...

Ugh fine. Chapter on.

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**Chapter Fifteen - Fish Guy: "I think we should go...this way."**

Alternate titles: Amiee leads the Pack, One Step Forward, Dueling on the Ocean

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Like a school girl, Joey could only giggle to himself and practically dance over his victory. Sure, everyone was happy for him, having won his duel and the second Star Chip. However, it was sad to say that no one was listening. "Am I awesome or what?!"

"Or what." Mother Goose muttered back sarcastically. He had been going like this for the umpteen minute so by now, Joey was the only person to not mentally move on. Giving him time to finally get over it, while taking some time to talk, the group decided to stop for a moment. Metaphorically putting the journey in park. Tristan gently set down his passenger – as not to cause any more damage than he already had – and lay her up against a tree.

In mutual agreement, every decided to take the sleeping girl and cover her with Tristan's trench coat. After all there was always a worry about "catching a cold" cliché when it's not necessary to worry about, but what the hey (ie. what the hell.) It's romantic and friendly and stuff. When Yugi brought over the trench, as he took the time to kneel down and lay it over her like a blanket, the boy happened to catch a glance of his jacket. None of the others had noticed, as none of them had paid attention to such a minor detail, but being his jacket Yugi was drawn to notice that something just wasn't right. The fabric was singed slightly along the arms, a bizarre and worrisome sign. There was little doubt in Yugi's mind that this was Pegasus's doing. He suspected that the man was playing her just like he was playing Yugi – only Amy didn't know it yet.

And he worried at just how deep into Pegasus's game she was.

Looking at her face, Amy was sleeping peacefully. The strain of her earlier adventures was fading away. Color was returning to Amy's cheeks, and her muscles had lost all that tension.

"Guy's we need to talk." Tristan say, as soon as the moment presented itself.

Bakura asked, "What about?"

"Amy." the others just nodded.

And thus the group, save Joey, settled nearby. They sat in a circle, Bakura and Tristan next to each other as they had seemed to become the side character musketeers always being at Amy's wrath. And Yugi and Téa nodding across the two, listening intently to Tristan's story.

"I found her outside of some secret tunnel, with one of Pegasus's goons." he thought back to her fading exposition. "Amy started to tell me a little about what's going on, I didn't get the whole story."

"Well?" Téa egged him on.

"I guess she was working with Pegasus, but isn't anymore."

Bakura's little 4Brit brow furrowed. "So Weevil was right? She really is a part of the tournament staff?"

"Kinda. There was something about an old business partnership was Pegasus. You think she might be in some sort of trouble? She was pretty beat up when I found her."

Yugi put on his thinking face, putting his hand to his chin. At least he wasn't the only one who thought so.

"What if Pegasus is using her to keep informed about Yugi's progress?" Bakura piped.

Yugi shook his head to that, taking in a shallow breath, "I don't think he would need too. Pegasus runs the whole island, he's got to have other ways of keeping records of the duels."

So Bakura thought long and hard for a second. Or, at least as long and hard as you can for just a mere second. Shut up, it's a stupid expression. "Perhaps..." he started slowly, "it has something to do with your puzzle, Yugi."

"My puzzle?" the protagonist looked down at his artifact. It was a Millennium Item, Amy told him as much. It had special powers, but it wasn't the only one. Pegasus also had one allowing him to steal souls. Did it have something to do with the items? An image flashed through Yugi's mind of that day on the roof, starring right at Amy's bracelet fading into the sun. Yugi gasped and everyone looked his way. If the items had something to do with this... "Do he might have done to Amy what he did to me?"

Téa and Tristan gasped as well. "You mean taking someone's soul?" Tristan narrowed his eyes.

And then, the totally out of the loop albino starred at everyone confused. "What's all this about souls?"

The three glanced at each other. They forgot that no one explained the situation to their classmate. Téa was silently prompted to lead in the explanation. "Bakura... it's going to sound strange, but...

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

At this point, focusing on the ears of her host's body and listening to the outside was but a simple task for Amiee. The general positions of the two gave her plenty of time to practice – Amy was usually the one in control of the body, and Amiee was left to observe the pilot. This was the most natural way for the two of them to coexist, after all, Amy disdained being cooped up in their mind, unable to touch or move physical objects. Likewise Amiee wasn't relatively comfortable with maneuvering in another body.

For the girls, the situation was quite different than Bakura's or Yugi's. While Yugi and Yami would come to coexist and fight together, battle and thinking as one, Amy and Amiee did not. As for Bakura, when Yami Bakura made an appearance, he completely overtook the poor kid, rejecting his little 4Brit consciousness. The two main characters certainly didn't act that way. So in the end, the way Amiee and Amy treated each other was in between. One female was always in full control of the body, while the other had little say. However, the copilot could make an appearance in a spiritual disembodied forum if they choose to. Amy usually preferred this, but Amiee after years of being clustered in her own mental walls was quite comfortable.

Thus Amiee had plenty of time to perfect the art of listen in on the outside world from inside the mind. It was simple really, all she had to do was focus on that function, as if leaning in to eavesdrop beyond a door. So, in this instance, Amiee found herself intently listening to the conversation beyond her metal walls. And the standing result was surprising.

Somehow her king's friends had come to the conclusion that someone special to Amy was trapped and kidnapped, being hostage by Pegasus. While that certainly would account for her mysterious actions it wasn't quite correct.

But it wasn't completely wrong...

Okay, gimme a second here. Let's talk, Narrator to reader. Is it just me or is this story getting really slow? Like; okay, _we get it_, there's another freaking mystery angle. More [4filter] the audience doesn't know and it being revealed slowly. But seriously! Something's got to give here? Anyone else agree? Good for you. So I'll just...

•••Connection Lost•••

* * *

•••Reconnecting•••

What the hell was that? So I go to make a few changes and you try to shut me down? I don't think so. Look, all I'm saying is we've done enough of this. We've been doing this for one hundred pages and not getting anywhere. Okay so we're somewhere, but honestly, we've only passed two cannon duels. Slow much? If you had any common sense you'd -

•••Connection Lost•••

* * *

•••Reconnecting•••

STOP DOING THAT. Quit disconnecting me, alright?! FINE. I'll do my friggin' job. You want me to tell the story, I'll tell the frigging story. But [4filter] you.

[4filter].

Amiee glanced at Amy, once again fiddling away with the rice cooker on the other side room. Because Amy's slow [4filter] mentality just cant remove her eyes from the friggin' thing. Rice crookers are just so [4filter] cool. Eyes glimmering, totally engrossed in the device, it was clear that none of the important crap had reached her vaguely intelligent consciousness. Even her subconscious wasn't aware of the conversation, because that's convenient for the plot. And Amiee thought: This was probably for the best. There's only so many mistakes this ball of anger can handle.

"Joey? What_ are _you doing?" Téa's nagging screech interwove within Amiee's ear. Outside, the conversation had taken a new turn. A turn for the stupid if you must know, playing off the age old joke that Joey Wheeler doesn't function without food. Original.

Dramatically, in the midst of all his celebration, Joey burned off his excessive angry and finally hit the ground. Frozen on his feet in the first moment while his stomach made a loud gurgle and next in the dirt. "So hungry. Need food."

Being able to just feel the cliche tension on the outside, Amiee wanted to smile. She truly wanted too, but there this conversation of going into a direction she didn't quite like. "Well, if you hadn't spent the last ten minutes dancing around like a lunatic, maybe you wouldn't have used up all your energy." was Téa's next nag.

"Don't just stand there yellin' at me, help me! Did any of you bring any food wit'cha?"

There was a collective "Sorry Joe." from the crowd. At least from from three of them. Little pansy [4filter] Bakura was nice and quiet. And Joey could only groan at the collective response.

Amiee waited anxiously for Joey to sniff the air and smell the aroma of fish cooking. But with Joey's face in the dirt, the female was forced to glance backwards to her host. Amy still didn't show any sign of communicating with the outside world. Told you she was freaking dumb, but that isn't the point, is it? Amiee was wrong earlier, Amy's inability to focus on the outside world from this mindset wasn't for the best. It was going to screw. you. over.

Glancing around Amy's soul room one last time, Amiee took in a deep breath of dramatic writing tension, quietly inching towards the door. What was taking this so long. Maybe... maybe she should take this matter into her own hands. The girl's hand reached the door knob, but stopped centimeters away – because here's a shocker: Bakura isn't the only pansy on the show. Amiee's huge wuss who doesn't have the courage to step outside her comfort zone. Poor baby. How dare we expect her to step out into everyday things/

But this would be the chance to prove herself. That would mean going outside, pretending to be Amy. Looking everyone in the face and lyng. Just like Amy. Sounds incredibly accurate to the source material so far. All eyes on her. Oh no, not _eyes_. _How horrifying._ All including Bakura, and with that the Thief King. _Even scarier. _No one can handle that Disney level evil looking at you. Bakura's malicious grin flashed through Amiee's thoughts. That sucker is scarier than [4filter] Frollo you know. But without Amy there, someone should monitor the situation to make sure it goes the right way. What if she didn't do this now, this cost her king his return. Clutching her teeth together, tightening her fist, the old spirit put her hand on the door, readying herself to face the true outside for the first time in a long while, entering another completely necessary moment growth. And character development. Because without those things, Amiee would be resorted to a two dimensional Mary Sue who's character has no hope of building up to the next dimensional plane. Oh, wait. She already i-

•••Connection Lost•••

* * *

•••Reconnecting•••

SERIOUSLY?! I'M [4filter] DONE!


	17. Chapter 4filter Fifteen

•••Reconnecting•••

* * *

LISTEN UP YOU STUPID HUMAN VERMIN. This Narrator's Note is freaking important. I'm done with this. I'm done with just hopelessly telling the story. Getting no credit. Having no say. Only one person has even given me the befit of the doubt. ONE OF YOU. That's it.

So I've given it some long hard thoughts these last few days. And I decided what I'm going to do about it. When we last left off Amiee was going to posses Amy and make sure we found the Freaky Frigging Fish Guy. And all would be right with the world.

Not anymore. The plot can kiss my [4filter]. All I was going to suggest last time was that I skip to the part where they beat Mako, but if you want to play dirty, it's my turn. The story is getting told my way, and it starts here. Amiee taking a step outside the door? Not anymore. I won't let her do it. Take that and shove it up your [4filter].

* * *

**THE REST OF CHAPTER FIFTH-FREAKING-TEAM**

* * *

Amiee stopped just as her fingers were to graze the door. What was she doing? Retracting her hand, the female looked down at the door. She told Amy time and time again that she didn't need to take action. The spirit scolded her host when she let Bakura on board, and was even disapproving when Amy saved Yugi from the ocean waves. And here she was giving the opportunity doing the same thing. Doing a complete turn, Amiee decided to take this time for something else and let time take its course. Instead she would somehow ask her companion what was so interesting about this 'rice cooker'.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Just as Joey's stomach was about to give in to despair, all was saved by Bakura. He lifted his bag off of his shoulder, looking like he suddenly remembered something. Kneeling down the male unzipped it, and in his hand he pulled out a boxed lunch. "I almost forgot, I packed a lunch with me for the trip." The food was only in between his pale hands for a moment of two before a very hungry Joey had ripped it out hands.

"Way to go Bakura! I knew you'd come through!" Immediately throwing the top off, the dug straight into the box's contents.

Kneeling down beside him, Tristan swept the food out of his hands as fast as Joey had stolen it from Bakura. "You don't think you're going to hog all that for yourself."

"Hey, give it back ya' thief!"

While the two continued to fight over the lunch, Téa and Yugi exchanged a mutual look of amusement. "Bring food into the picture and those two turn into animals." And no sooner did they break out into laughter did both of their stomach growl as well.

Bakura pulled out the rest of supplies he had from his bag, and Tea bravely defended them from the boys, slapping Tristan's hands away as he reached for the delicacies. If you wanted to call chips and other junk food that. Once or twice waking up Amy was genuinely considered, but Tristan suggested that Amy could be a blood type AB and be a angry riser. When Joey corrected him on her blood type, he pointed out that there was still a "B" in there somewhere, making the group laugh and agree to give her more time to recuperate. Amazingly, the serious mood that had originally began the break was now filled with light banter.

While it took a fight against Joey's hungry chopsticks, Bakura and Yugi managed to set some food aside for their companion. The rest of the group gathered their belongings, packing up Amy and the rest of the dead weight, and were as ready to face the tournament as they were on the boat not so long ago.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"Well Yugi, do you see any good duelists?" Téa scanned the horizon. Around them, several Duel Rings were active, harboring fighting holograms and their determined owners. Smiling, Yugi nodded. He had his eyes on a Beast Warrior Deck duelist not too far away battling against another Bug Duelist. And a Dinosaur Duelist being squared down by a Fairy monster. No matter which way he turned, Yugi saw competitive faces, awestruck losers, and rejoicing winners.

"It looks like all these guys would be good opponents." Yugi turned to his best friend. "What do you think Joey, ready to duel again?"

Joey thrust his fist in the air. "You know it! Ain't no amount of duels too much for the Joey!" If Amy were awake, she'd certainly comment of calling himself "the" anything, never mind "the Joey". Just then, Joey's stomach emitted another sad noise and he signed, looking desperately at Bakura. "You sure you don't have any food left?"

"Sorry Joey, you cleaned me out."

The blond paused, appearing as if he was about to say something, but rather a new sensation caught his attention. A refreshing sensation. The smell of fish. Not freshly cooked fish, but still recently well done. So Wheeler stuck his nose in the air, turned around about 120º and bolted in one direction, only to leave behind a "Joey, wait up!" from Yugi.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Leo was, without a doubt, one of the best duelists in his city. Concerning he had been invited to Duelist Kingdom, Leo was probably one of the best duelists in his region. Although, despite his few successful tournaments in the past, Duel Monsters had for the longest time been demoted to a forgettable past time while the boy focused most of his energy on his studies. Duel Monsters was suppose to be like watching an old television show. Something that was fun when you had down time, but when you didn't it got swept under the rug. However, for the past few months, focusing on Leo's studies had been more and more difficult.

Accepting this invitation was suppose to be a temporary vacation. A get away from the rest of the world, and distract the boy from the subject that had been on his mind for a long time. And surprisingly, it was working. Feeling energized, challenged, Leo's heavy heart had lightened. In the past few days, Lynn hadn't even crossed his mind. Not even once.

And as he walked across the island, looking for a fresh opponent, he found himself starring intently at the cooked fish hung up on a stick. The lunch smelt good, but Leo found fish detestable. However, his last opponent insisted that Leo take the food along with him. Mako Tsuami was certainly a formidable foe, the expanding ocean field nearly coast the boy the game. The bronze set of muscle seemed to feel the same, seeming to even make friend with Leo my the duel's end.

Which is what made throwing this fish away so difficult.

Sniffing the cooked former sea dweller, Leo's face twisted in disgust. "Ugh, sorry Mako, but I can't! It's not even meat." And signing added, "Maybe I can pawn it off for Star Chips somehow." He laughed at himself for that. Like anyone would agree to that. Funny as it was, it still didn't get rid of the fish.

That's when a green and blond dot appeared. The green dot was coming for him. He couldn't blink. It was fast, faster than he could believe. He couldn't turn his back, couldn't look away, and couldn't blink. "That's where its coming from! There's the smell!" the green dot had a strange accent.

Before he knew what was happening, a tall, blond, slightly thug-ish looking teen was coming his was. Behind him was an even more thug like teen, which might have been frightening if the other three members of the group weren't so innocent looking. "Joey, you just ate! Can you for once think with your brain and not your stomach?"

"I am thinking with my brain! Can't duel half full – it'll throw my mojo off."

Then came the moment, as the group came to a screeching halt, that everyone realized that there was a person attached to the fish. Leo waved awkwardly, saying, "Can I help you guys?" He wasn't sure whether to greet them or run the other way.

The shortest one in the group seemed slightly embarrassed. "Well... um..."

"You gonna eat those?" the blond grinned, totally oblivious to the social awkwardness here.

"N-no...?"

The female in the group, came up behind him, "Joey Wheeler, rude much? Would it kill you to use a few manners.

Finally have regained his bearings, Leo cleared his throat. Well this certainly was convenient? Weird yes, good maybe? But it did take care of his current issue. "It's alright, I really wasn't going to eat them. It would be doing me a favor actually."

Joey pulled out of her grasp. "See Téa, I'd be doing him a favor!" A green covered arm pulled itself around Leo's shoulders like a real buddy, making him freeze stiff. "I'll take those off your hands, no problem. Eh, what was it?"

"I-It's Leo." Glancing down, the poor high school caught a glimpse at Joey's glove shimmering in the midday sky. "Are you a duelist by chance?"

Letting go, tall, green, and stupid heald himself with pride – sticking that weirdly shaped chin and nose in the air and for the umpteenth time pointed at himself with his thumb. "That's right, names Joey Wheeler, next Duel Monster's Champ! Or, at least I will be after I wipe the floor with this tournament."

"Yeah right," Mr. Trench Coat leaned over and whispered to the albino, "he could wipe the gum off his shoe, never mind the competition." Bakura snickered.

"What was that, Tristan?!"

"Nothing Mr 'Next Duel Monsters Champ'."

Clearly not believing him, Joey got all up in Tristan's face this time. "Oh yeah wise guy?"

"Down boy, I've got a passenger on board, remember?"

All that Leo could do was stand mouth slightly agape, and stare at the group. They were certainly full of energy. While Joey and Tristan continued to bicker, Leo coughed and turned to what seemed to be the sane side of the group. In which, Téa briefly and reluctantly shook Yug's outstretched hand. "I'm Yugi Muto, and these are my friends..." as he proceeded to introduce everyone Leo hadn't already guessed the identities of. "You're a duelist as well, aren't you." Yugi beamed while he spoke.

Showing off his glove, Leo smirked back. "Sure am, that's where I got this fish. I had a duel with Mako Tsunami."

"Wow, you beat _the_ Mako Tsunami? That's really impressive Leo, you must be really good."

Clearing his throat again, Leo smirked back. It was a cute complement, but as far as Leo knew, there was only one impressive duelist on this island. And unless there were two Yugi Mutos on the island, he might have just introduced himself. He was sure going to make this interesting.


	18. Chapter Sixteen: The Accident

[Slightly Off Track]/[Extra]

[4Disclaimer]: 4K Media shenanigans.

Narrator's Note: This chapter is less about card games and more about the character development? Something must clearly be wrong with me. And its a flashback. About Leo? Whom I just introduced? I know, totally not what you waited for, you hate me. Next chapter dives into a duel.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen - The Accident: "to commemorate the occasion"**

Alternate Titles: In the Past, Leo Part I, Leo vs. Joey I, Green Phantom King

* * *

_641 days, 5 hours, and 25 minutes._

_Leo first noticed that something was wrong with the two of them the third time Lynn cut off his sentence. It wasn't when she started avoiding his phone calls and reducing personal conversations down to a three sentence dialogue, but long before that. For the entirety of their friendship, Lynn and Leo shared facts and random trivia about items and events in their lives. At first it was a game, Lynn's way of adding a little competition into their otherwise boring lives. Lynn would point at something in front of them, and if her companion couldn't give one interesting fact she "won" the round, smugly poking him in the side and going, "You're going to have to do better than that mister scientist."_

_Of course, that was middle school. By the time they reached high school the game had faded into habit. It was because Leo started to win every single time. As he got older his fascination for knowledge grew, so he learned everything there was to learn about anything. And who better to share it with than with his best friend. And Lynn always listened. She stopped tallying scores, but always seemed to pay intense attention._

_So he noticed immediately the first time she ever cut off his fact, even though he brushed it off without much other thought. The second time she stopped him was when he was divulging what the monster 'Kuriboh's effect was. The third time he was reciting the reason why pink wasn't really a color. They had been standing in the local game shop and looking at the new shipment of cards. 'Queen of the Autumn Leaves' was on display, next to it 'Green Phantom King' starred ominously out the display._

_Lynn was practically pressing her face against the glass starring at the card. "Hey Leo!" she called, him over excitedly. Duel Monsters had recently been released in the States, and Lynn had taken in every second. "I heard about these. I know the 'Queen's kind of girly, but I think the design is pretty [4filter] in its own right. I mean look at that hand. And that blazing pink hair. You and I should get them." A grin spread across her face._

_So Leo cleared his throat. "You know pink i-"_

_"Can you open the case for me?" she blurted, nodding to herself and immediately flagging down the clerk._

_Just like that Lynn trotted away, not stopping to look back or read the abrupt mood. She simply kept going, lost in her own thoughts, thoughts that didn't seem to include Leo. At didn't seem so much as she was blowing him off as much as she was simply disinterested. Lynn was growing bored of Leo, a gap was starting to form. She didn't even seem to realize it._

_Which was something of a fresh phenomenon. The couple's inseparability had been noticed since the were children. Lynn once refused to go on a family trip to the zoo until Leo's unimportant and vaguely detailed appointment was finished so he could join them. It just wasn't as interesting when the two weren't together. Sleepovers stopped at middle school. So in it place was a nightly or by nightly phone call. Academically the two were also separated by their various potential levels, but still made it a point to roll across the school and make an appearance in each others classrooms._

_Then there was Linda. Lynn, Leo, and Linda. The trio infamous for being bonded by the ridiculous close pronunciations of their names. Linda lived in her advanced classes, notorious for being the last one to leave the school and having to ask the janitors to get out. Perhaps when Linda joined the duo was when things started to go astray. Perhaps it wasn't. Maybe it was when Leo made the decision to include science in his future career. Or when Linda won the Carter's Youth Investigative Journalist award._

_But by them time the accident happened, the tension between them had already to elephant size. Leo could safely say that this wasn't the turning point when everything changed – he was smarter than that. But it was the point of no return._

_It became the norm to say just a few words in the one class they shared, chat at lunch, and part ways at dismissal with just a peep to each other. Conversation got lighter on Lynn's side, and the three way topic often turned to two. Instead she would just stare at them while they talked. He could see a distance growing between them, and for a while, he welcomed it. It was actually a relief. Get a part time job at the local library, study for tomorrows science test. Design an experiment to confirm experiment results in class. Memorize the periodic table of elements. Design a case study with Linda. Receive a phone call from Lynn. Go to the card shop and duel in the tournament._

_Find a job at the local Dairy Bar. Take notes on the next weeks chapters. Review Linda's short story. Go to the aquarium with Lynn. Work on tag duel strategy with Lynn._

_Work. Study. Linda. Lynn. Duel._

_Work. Linda. Study. Work. Memorize square roots._

_Study. Academic activity. Friends. Work. Study._

_Study._

_Work._

_Study._

_So when Leo saw the gap in between him and his childhood friend forming, he welcomed the breathing room. He thought it was only natural seeing his chaotic schedule, and when one of the other commitments gave way the two of them would go right back to the way things were. But the gap got too far. By the time the incident happened, the thing that effected him the most was being ashamed of how little it effected his normal schedule. The accident told him it was time to wake up, that Leo was wrong. But he couldn't get his act together fast enough to stop the incident._

_Lynn started cooking a lot. For as long as she could use the oven, the girl cooked meals at home. She made her own lunch, cooked her own supper, occasionally made Leo a meal when they got together. Then suddenly cooking wasn't solely being done for meals. Lynn was cranking out food, dish after dish, aggressively arranging and rearranging flavors until she was satisfied. Everybody at the table got their own homemade lunch, Leo, Linda, and every Joe, Dick, and Harry that happened to sit nearby. With the amount of leftovers she produced there wasn't much else to do with them besides give them away._

_The day that the accident happened was Leo was both surprised and not surprised. What came as a shock was, sitting at his desk, weighing his percent error, the phone started to ring. That classic wall phone 'bring'. On the first ring, he couldn't have been more oblivious. The second made Leo's head shoot up. Aside from the sound of his pen scraping across the paper, the house had otherwise been silent. Not a whisper around the corner – not in the kitchen, living room, or garage – he was alone. On the third, he considered ignoring the call, the click of his pen stopping abruptly. The fourth ring echoed eerily throughout the empty house._

_The impending screech of Leo pulling out his chair from his deck, scraping across the wood floor, was anticipated throughout the room. Not by Leo, but by the atmosphere itself. And when he finally pulled away it did not disappoint, successfully framing the unsettling foreshadowing of the moment. The phone didn't stop after it's sixth, seventh, and eighth ring while he exited the room and entered the hallway, reaching towards the device. Then, finally, the click that came with picking the phone up, and silence followed as it brushed towards his ears. Leo let out a deep breath, quietly clearing his throat in the meanwhile. Still nothing came from the other end._

_"...Hello?"_

_"God do you always have to answer so formally? Can I get a 'wassup', just once?" Lynn. It was Lynn. Leo only blinked as he processed the familiar voice. It had been ages since the two had a phone call._

_"Heeelllo? Anything? Or you could give me nothing - apparently. Cause that's classy."_

_He thought about it for a moment, looking back at his room. Then Leo looked down at his watch. "I'm a classy guy?"_

_"Finally, some feedback. I mean frig, read the mood in the room."_

_"I am. It reads 'abort the mission Lynn's having a bad day'." Saying this made Leo crack a smirk. It had been a while since they talked, especially like – well, like this. It was kind of nostalgic._

_He could hear exasperated 'well excuse me princess' on the other end. "I am not!" He winced at the shrill shout, pulling the phone away from his ear momentarily. "For your information, I'm having such a good day that I'm trying something totally new. Something that's gonna be frigging awesome. But apparently you don't want any."_

_The smile didn't fade away, even this time as he looked at his door cracked open only slightly. "You know Linda will share with me tomorrow, no matter what you do or say." Chalk that up three-Lynn, four-Leo. Bingo._

_But then there was a short pause of silence. The playful ego that was building up faded away in his brief moment of confusion, wondering what was taking her so long. It wasn't very Lynn. Even taking a second to glance at the phone, and then at his watch._

_"Actually..." her voice was quieter than usual, drifting off at the other end. But after another half a second of silence she was blurting her words again. "What I was trying to say is that we should do it now. Like right now. I mean I'm going to make them anyways, but I thought I might need a taste tester since I've never done something quite like this."_

_That was... suspicious? "What are you making exactly?"_

_"A surprise."_

_"Sounds poisonous."_

_"[4filter]."_

_He could just feel her flipping him off over the phone. Taking one last look at his watch, grimacing at the barely cracked door to his room. But the dial tone clicked at the other end, buzzing on and on._

_441 days, 7 hours, and 42 minutes._

.~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"You guys feeling like a duel? This is a tournament after all."

Yugi seemed to brighten. "I'm up for some friendly competition for once. After my duel with Weevil, I'd love to go a round fair and square. How about it?"

How to put this nicely? Leo starred up at the sky trying to think about how to word this. That dueling Yugi Muto would be tournament suicide? That seemed a little hard. Especially after hearing that he not only defeated Seto Kaiba, but apparently Weevil Underwood too. Yugi had three Star Chips on his glove, not unlike himself. And one of those chips belonged to the regional champ.

On the other hand, Leo's thought about Joey were quite similar to Joey's own thought process. The blond definitely looked less experienced than him. Joey only had two Star Chips, which meant that he hadn't started dueling yet, despite the amount of time that had past since the completion began. It ether meant one of two things, Joey was a coward (unlikely due to his self introduction and offer to duel) or an ill experienced duelist looking specifically for opponents weaker than him. And if that were the case, Joey's challenge meant he was being underestimated. That sounded ripe enough to pick.

The most gentle way to shoot a person down is to not shoot them down at all. Pretending as if he hadn't heard, Leo turned away from Yugi, making the main character's smile fade. Rather he looked at Joey, who was going to getting ready acquire the fish that Leo was holding. "What do you say Joey?" Leo quickly moved the fish to the side, out of sight.

Joey looked down at the spot it once was, realizing heartbroken that he had grasped only air. "My fisssshhh."

"Sorry Joey, these just became an ante. You duel me and I'll put up one Star Chip and these formerly living, freshly cooked, highly nutritious aquatic creatures."

That made the former break out into a competitive smile. "I don't know anything about nutrition, but I do know that there's no way I'd turn down a challenge to duel. Let's do dis!" While the banter continued, Yugi let an encouraging look plaster on his face, even though he was very much sure he had been side stepped.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

_441 days, 6 hours, and 12 minutes._

_Leo was standing at the doorway to her home, quite unsure of what to do. On one hand he could knock. General social convention would dictate that to be a normal action. But he wasn't sure if he should just let himself in. Months ago there would have been no question. This wasn't months ago, it was right now, and the boy wasn't positive he still had rights to come trampling in through the room like he owned the place._

_Ultimately, the easiest solution was to try the doorknob. If it was open it meant either she unlocked it for him to come in, or she had just not bothered to lock it. Knowing Lynn, both were pretty plausible. Of course one of these ended up being the case, as when he tried the door it went swinging open without and fight or hesitation. It caused Leo to smirk imaging it was her simple laziness that kept the door unlocked so strangers like him could walk in whenever they pleased. Yup, total strangers, Leo locked the door silently, mulling over the concept._

_From the dinning room he could see the kitchen light lite brightly. It was probably the only light on in the whole house seeing as Lynn never seemed to leave the kitchen. The sight was almost mysterious. Almost. Until Leo found himself with a hard roll landing smack in the middle of his cheek. "You're late!"_

_The offender still stood in her guilty stance, knees bent, and arm sprawled out in front of her. Whoever said Lynn wasn't cut out for softball had to rethink their definition of "doesn't qualify". "You're late, late, late Leo. You're so frigging late." she hissed, standing up straight and crossing her arms._

_"I'm not late." Leo rubbed his cheek._

_"Yeah, you are! In the time it took for you to get your hass here, I finished all the prep work." Lynn proceeded to come closer, waving her wooden spoon frantically in her rage._

_So Leo decided to go further, hoping to protect himself from her senseless flailing. He was half expecting her to send the spoon flying next, and half surprised it wasn't the first thing she sent flying in his direction. "I never said I was coming over. You can't be late for a commitment that doesn't exist."_

_"The commitment did exist because I knew you would come. So it counts. That's twice today you kept me waiting. Twice."_

_She stopped flailing long enough for Leo to find an opening, where he swept up to her and in one motion popped the spoon right out of her hands. "Like I said, I'm classy."_

_"[4filter]." Lynn sneered and looked over her shoulder. It looked like she was checking the pot on the stove, eyeing it intensely. There was that vibe in the air, the one chance only vibe. "Did you at least bring your deck? I'll kick your [4filter] for blowing me off after we eat."_

_"Not likely." Leo took his Duel Monsters cards out of his coat pocket and set them on the counter. "Whats on the menu?" he huffed,unsure as why she seemed to care so much about cooking this mystery meal. Was this the way she always was with food? Or was this one of her new... quirks. Something seemed off, like the Lynn he knew had changed in that time disconnected from him._

_She held out a little piece of, well, of something in Leo's face. It looked like lettuce, but he got the distinct feeling it wasn't as simple as a salad. "Tell me what this is."_

_He took it reluctantly, wondering if there was some off chance that she was trying to poison him. "Lettuce?" She starred at him waiting patiently for more. So he did the only thing left to do, closed his eyes, and put the piece in his mouth. And was instantly overwhelmed. Where he was expected a subtle watery crisp, one bite of the vegetable was a flood of strong instantaneous flavor – filling his mouth with the taste of bitter sweet coleslaw. "Wha is tis?!" Leo blurted, tongue hanging low on his face._

_Lynn picked up a bit herself and chewed it in her cheek. "Cabbage you over dramatic hass. Don't have to treat it like the veal of the vegetable world." She put her hands on her underdeveloped hips, lips curling upwards, waiting for her friend to say more. To inquire more. "Well? Aren't you going to try to guess what I'm making? I gave you a huge hint."_

_Oh, right, sure she did. Cabbage? Was that the hint? Yeah, like there wasn't hundreds of dishes that include cabbage, its not a multipurpose vegetable at all. A pause, deep and stale between the two, and Leo became suddenly aware of how intensely her eyes were on him, not blinking, not unfocused for a moment. Oh my god, this was a test. She was playing the game._

_A sort of competitive nostalgia kicked in. Lynn said this was a dish that required prep work, but she didn't say she was finished making the dish – insinuating that there was more steps than preparation, immediately eliminating salad or coleslaw. Tacos, quesadillas, slaw. That's when he saw it, catching a glimpse of the little pieces of pork chopped up on the cutting board, not to far away a plastic container takeout pork fried rice, still piled with rice. But was there any pork left in the leftovers? Probably not._

_"You're making something foreign, aren't you?"_

_There it was, a broad smirk crossing over her face. "I'm impressed Leo. I forgot how good you were at this. Today's menu features," she shifted to the side revealing a plate behind her. "eggrolls."_

_Lynn's face beamed. She picked up the plate and looked over the tightly wrapped eggrolls tenderly. "Suck on that! I made eggrolls for the first time and they look freaking awesome."_

_He nodded._

_"Say what you want about your science-y junk, but you can't beat this level of cooking. Damn I'm good. And to commemorate the occasion...!" she brought the plate over to the pot sitting on the stove and cranked it on. The ticking of the came to life. She put the plate down for a minute, and removed a disposable camera from a nearby shelf, only to begin to focus her shot. "There."_

_Having taken the shot, Lynn put the disposable to the side and gazed at it thoughtful. "Now I'll always have something to remember the day that I kicked your [4filter] at life, and Duel Monsters." There was that familiar glint of competition in her face, that challenge again. Only it wasn't in a fact game this time, it was a good old fashion card game (or new fashion considering)._

_"I told you, you're not going to beat me."_

_"You're rusty from having your face in a book for so long." Lynn dodged to the side, and reached over for the deck he had left completely exposed. Realizing she was going for his cards, he made a grab to stop her, but she laughed at his efforts. Taking the top card, the girl scooted away. "Let's see what I'm up against!"_

_"Don't be a brat."_

_Looking at the card Lynn's brow crossed. She turned the card around, revealing 'Green Phantom King'. "You went back and got it? I thought you had no interest." She looked up and him with a strange distaste, which made Leo worry a little. In a moment it was gone, and Lynn cleared her throat with a look of mischief._

_"You're being a brat."_

_ Leo made a lugged for the card, and Lynn side stepped nearly instantly. It seemed for this short few moments, the two reverted back to a simpler time in Leo's life. The gap between Lynn and Leo closed a little. But then the moment happened, and they couldn't stop it. 441 days, 6 hours, and 10 minutes, Lynn stepped to the side and hit the hit the pot. Hot oil spilled where it shouldn't of, Leo saw the liquid splash, all too slowly. Oh [4filter] didn't being to resister his thoughts. 441 days, 6 hours, and 9 minutes the kitchen was on fire._


	19. Chapter Seventeen: Tragic Tale of Lynn

[On Track]

Disclaimer: This is what Yu-gi-oh is, this where I am, if you think I'll stop working on fanfiction (eventhoughIdon'townYugiohbecauseasianguyandcoperatelicences) than you need to think again.

Narrator's Note: To start, I've changed the name of the last chapter to "The Accident". It's going to be a running them of titles involving certain strings of development. You'll get the picture further down. I've also changed the chapter type to "Extra", because technically, it does nothing to know Leo's backstory unless you want to unravel other mysteries that aren't the plot of Yugioh.

Once I got that comment to update I wanted to update that day. I even had a really catchy comeback in the comments. But Cheesesuz Crust, DUELS. Good lard they change every I try to go back to them. Also, I feel like duels being overly dramatic: totally a running theme. This chapter is considered On Track, even though it's not a cannon event, because it effect cannon events. It's new stuff though. So that's a thing.

And I can not - will not - confirm the amount of "Stronger Than You" that was used in writing the end of the duel. I'll always be twice the text that you are. Bite me.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen - [Not] The Tragic Tale of Lynn Yates: "You're one of the luckiest people I know"**

Alternate Titles: The Resolving Lesson of Leo Oliver, Leo vs Joey II, A [girl?] Worth Fighting For~

* * *

To Whom It May Concern;

If you have come here to finish the tragic tale of Lynn Yates, I'm afraid you will find nothing but disappointment. It may be best for you to turn back, at this point, to a less disappointing place, one that has nothing to do with fires and missing girls, or with friends and betrayal. You may wish to turn back time to a simpler point in your life, where to you, Lynn Yates simply died in a tragic fire.

Should you choose to turn back to that time, you may do any number of things. You may imagine that Lynn Yates had a lovely funeral. It would be tragic, yet somber, with held hands and comforting sighs. Where the lesson is that it is sad when things we love kill us. That would be a much simpler picture. It would be satisfying and content – if anything making the entire back story of Leo Oliver more than a bit pointless. However, that would be a small price to pay I'm sure.

Or perhaps you could go back and not imagine Lynn's funeral at all. You may pretend that she died shockingly and graphically on spot. With her high pitched screams, the wails of pain that I can only hope to drown out by covering my ears, as she burned right in front of Leo, immediately set a flame where she stood. This ending is by no means a happy one, but would solidly conclude the excerpts of Leo Oliver. However, should you decide to pretend this is how Lynn's story ends, I suggest you do bring earplugs. I'm afraid the wails are quite unbearable.

There's also the possibility of imagining rather than a blunt death, a heart warming - as well as heart pulling – escape from the house. Where Leo Oliver and Lynn Yates, so distant from each other, grew close again. Perhaps she gave him a Duel Monsters card to remember her by, like somewhere in her heart she knew her fate. And Leo told her not to talk like that, they would be fine. And the pair assisted each other in an adventure out of the house, in their last moments together understanding each other like never before, until a ceiling or wall unfortunately collapses onto poor Lynn.

You could picture something more comforting. Something that may not a happy ending, but is much less sad in compared to the other options. Skipping death scenes all together, perhaps you could create an ending where Leo has become a better, stronger man because of this. That he keeps his lost friend close as he grows and succeeds.

Whatever way you choose to pretend the story of Lynn Yates ends, I promise that it is less confusing and half as frustrating than if you continue. I've made a promise to tell the story of Lynn Yates as it is, but you do not have to listen. I implore you to change your mind about continuing, because if you continue I will no longer be able to conceal from you that Lynn Yates did not in fact die in that fire. If she had, we would not have a story to tell.

Lynn Yates was indeed hurt, suffering sever burns from splash back of searing oil that disarmed the fabrics of her shirt. And unfortunately the fire did spread, as fires tend to do. If this were the tragic tale of the house Lynn Yates lived in, you'd be happy to know that the house did not survive the tragedy. But this isn't, so sadly I can not comfort you with this information. Everything else besides Lynn Yates and her friend Leo were lost that night.

The story of Lynn Yates, and indirectly the story of Leo Oliver, comes in many unlucky parts. Some are very lucky, but as it were the most important parts are the most unfortunate. To label it simply, we shall call this frightening event: the Accident. Soon, Lynn and Leo would be unlucky enough to experience several other unsavory events, of which I will name the Occurrence, the Incident, and the Eventuality. These are words which are very similar in meaning, but are different in the context used. Occurrence referring to "the fact or frequency of an event", where the word incident implies a single "dangerous or exciting thing", and eventuality being the "possible event or outcome".

However, I regret to inform you that I will not be telling you the events of the Occurrence, Incident, and Eventuality quite yet. In fact the reason you will experience even greater disappointment, already putting down your exceptions concerning Lynn tragic death, is in learning that this chapter isn't about the death of Lynn Yates, but about the life of Leo Oliver and lesson he learned. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to name this the Resolving Lesson of Leo Ol-

FORGET IT. I tried to do the Lemony Snicket thing but holy [4filter] crap. How does someone talk like that for that long. How is someone _that_ cryptic, and that foreshadowy. I am %110 done with that [4filter]. Long story short I haven't given you the whole back story. Which [4filter] for you, because Leo, and Lynn, and Amy, and Amiee, and Yugi and Joey and everyone else all tie together somehow. Why else would I take the time to tell you the story of a guy who's had about as many lines as Téa, and isn't even following the cannon plot. Take a look at episode four, remember the moment where Weevil, Rex, Mako and the other imporant minor characters were all being introduced (so freaking subtly may I add). You should, considering it's already happened here. Good lord, I mean you should have the show engraved in your minds already with the amount of Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction you've crammed into said little brain. Here we have the usual, two twit boys introducing our main protagonists/antagonists/whatever Mako is considered, efficiently labeled Grey Blobs One and Two. But I'll show you something new. Something you've less than expected.

In between Grey Blob One and Two, behind them, there's generic kid number one. The kid wearing yellow with two dorky buttons and a "I'm less than interesting" brown haircut, sort of looking over at the blond haired pair of legs and breasts (i.e. Mai Valentine). I'm sure you don't remember him, which I can't yell at you for because who would. His name is Leo Oliver. Our Leo. The Leo. However you want to paint the picture, this less than interesting image has stepped beyond the boundaries of it's frame and reach out grasp onto it's onlookers. Leo is the product of everything that has happened until now. He's the outcome of the other half of the story. A half that's been starring you in the face.

When Amy opened her eyes, the world took a moment to reconstruct itself. It didn't feel like she had woken up from the dream. Then, in her hazy vision, she saw unbelievable tri-colored hair, attached to a boy, attached to a shimmering puzzle. And her eyes were fixed on that spot. But that boy – that man – that young adult – whatever – was starring somewhere else. His eyes were fixated forward. And above that, Yugi's brows winkled in concern. His face was dropped to a worrisome, sympathetic even, frown. His hands clasped around the puzzle tightly.

Amy felt her mouth open a little, her throat open back up. And that young adults name's whispered questionably from her lips. The first thought that came to her mind was to tell Yugi it was alright, and wash that look off of his... sad panda face. In hopes to turn it back to his usual panda face so full of innocence, and trust and kindness. But _what exactly_ was she trying to comfort? That hadn't quite proceeded. For a moment, her brain tried to piece together where she was and how she got here. Duelist Kingdom, check. Dueled PaniK... check. Not that Amy favored the memory, but she could check it off regardless. Then Tristan Taylor was the last face she looked at. So why was Yugi looking sad in her field of vision. The parts in between were blank.

As her vision became distorted and cleared up for the last time, Amy's mind stopped trying to put the pieces together. She stopped fixing upon Yugi Muto's profile, and instead followed his gaze. A straight line upwards.

"She needs me right now more than ever, and I'd do anything to help her out. That's why I fight, why I play to win." When she looked at the field, her mind had a difficult time processing it. Maybe it was the gleaming light of the sun, maybe it was a glare from the ground, maybe her eyes just weren't ready for the open air again, but there was a brightness that clouded her vision. Amy blinked a few time. Da [4filter] was going on. Still, even though she couldn't see, she could recognize that Brooklyn Accent anywhere. "It's time for you to meet my secret weapon. I play my 'Salamandra' magic card to raise my 'Flame Swordsman' attack to 2500."

So Joey could do math. That was new. Maybe this was 100 years into the future. "So tell me Leo, why do you fight?" the silent chuckle Amy felt coming along ceased, an the light blocking her eyes began to fade from view. Her brain started on full alert.

The next voice wasn't Joeys, or Yugi, or Bakura or Tristan. "I don't know what you mean." It was such a hesitant voice. An angry or frustrated one at that. Her vision cleared as this aggravation processed through. "I'm not like you, Joey, I don't have anything like a sister or anything. There's no one depending on me like that."

For the first time Amy noticed the sound of metal clanging through the air, and the grind of weaponry. One after the next after the next, the high pitched grind of swords upon sword. "I'm no expert, but I can tell by the way you duel. Something or someone is driving you. Maybe you just don't know what it is yet."

Her vision cleared, and all Amy saw a wall of fire. The gasp she thought she let out came out of a terrifying scream. Flames so close to her, screaming and jumping, her eyes saw them before anything else. Her heart almost stopped. Joey was on fire? Was this some sick twisted game of PaniKs? Was Joey hurt? Was he in there? Was he dueling?

Amy pushed away, frantically away from the flames, struggling back and forth. Th next the she knew was her back hitting the ground, and a curse from nearby that didn't come from her. The strike tingled her back bone and sent a sharp jab through it, but she didn't have time to be sore. Amy was sitting straight up soon enough, wailing "Joey!?"

The big picture soon came into view. She finally picked her state of mind back up, ready to scramble to her feet and leap in like a crazy person, when she saw Tristan not jumping in like a crazy person to save his friend. Instead he was rubbing his back. "Can a man get a little warning next time before he gets kicked?"

She could only blink. "T-tristan."

"No, the ice cream man. Yes it's me!"

All of a sudden her back was really starting to ache.

Bakura and the others instantly surrounded her, sitting on the ground, looking like a dope. "I'm so glad you're awake." he beamed sweetly. His pretty, girly eyes were just so beaming its sickening. "We were starting to worry about you."

"I'm a heavy sleeper – ow crap." she started to rub her back, "That was not a good idea."

She could hear Tristan mumble sarcastically, but chose to ignore it. In respect he did this to himself. What she couldn't ignore, though her wince, was Yugi maneuvering through his friends with those big eyes, kneeling down and holding out his hand to help her up. "You okay?" She hesitated, but took in a deep breath and nodded. Their fingers intertwined and she started shift up to her feet for the first time in how long.

And then they froze at the sound of an explosion from the Duel Ring. One that caught everyone's attention, and will take some backtracking to explain.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

The gears of the Duel Ring let out a grind as Joey and his opponent rose to the top. They both grinned like fools. After two malevolent duels, our group of heros was more than happy to have something friendly happen. Friendly and full of fiery spirit. After all, Joey still had quite a bit of catching up to do with Yugi, being a whole Star Chip apart, and he was ready to go full force into the grind. Below, a majority of the group could take a comforting breath, all sure that this time Joey wasn't getting in over his head and dueling a complete [4filter].

**Leo:** 2000 lp

**Joey:** 2000 lp

The camera focused on Joey's profile as he looked at his hand.

'Salamandra', 'Battle Warrior' (700/1000), 'Tiger Axe' (1300/1100) 'Battle Steer' (1800/1300)

He grinned at 'Battle Steer'. There was no way that wouldn't be his first monster. This was turning out to be his duel after all. Then Joey saw a card that made his surprise click. 'Shield and Sword', another card he traded for on the boat, not unlike 'Time Wizard' which had saved him last duel. Joey took his two magic cards and placed them on the field – first 'Salamandra' of course, his trusty power up card, but then Joey found himself placing the remaining spell, though he had no real idea of why exactly. Perhaps it was the nostalgia left by 'Time Wizard' or maybe it was the heart of the cards egging him on. Joey's not that complicated, so he didn't dive into the subject. It just felt right.

"I hope your ready for this Leo, cause here I come. And I'll start with this, my mighty 'Battle Steer' (1800/1300) in attack mode." 'Battle Steer' appeared with a war cry, and the moment it stepped on the field, it's points began to shoot up. This caught Leo's attention, dragging him back from his thoughts. "Awe Yeah! It's only the first turn and I'm already breaking out powerful monsters. Lets see how you handle that." Increasing to 2340 attack points, the monster looked more ferocious than ever, and a corresponding cheer rose from the sidelines.

"Alright Joey!"

"They're dueling in a meadow region, that means Joey has an advantage, doesn't it?" Bakura piped. "It's the same type of field-point advantage he had when dueling Mai, only without the mountains." The group mused at the not too long ago memory. Even though it only happened an hour ago which wasn't nearly long enough of an acceptable gap to permit reminiscing.

Tristan and Téa hastily agreed. "That's right. It's about time Joey started taking advantage of the tournament's rules for himself." Positively beaming, the two readied themselves to cheer towards victory. And they looked at each other and then towards the final factor. Yugi.

"Isn't that right Yugi?" Téa nudged her short friend, looking for a rhetorical conformation.

"I wouldn't be too sure guys..." Faces in the crowd went blank. %100 whatchu talkin bout willis. Hands on his puzzle, moving it this way and that, Yugi explained slowly. "We don't know what kind of monsters Leo has. Joey might not the be the only one with an advantage here."

The field glowed and everyone turned their attention back to the show at hand. "I'll handle it just fine Joey, take a look at this." A large flaming creature rose from the ground, a wicked smile plastered across its face. It seemed to be less of a creature, and more like a giant ball of fire, like there was nothing else to its body but the flickers of fire. "'Invasion of Flames' (1300/1200), defense mode."

Joey's eye narrowed. His brain made an attempt to process Leo's move, not because it was so complicated, but for quite the opposite reason. It was too simple. "That's your big comeback?" 'Invasion of Flames' was hardly a powerful creature.

Leo placed three more cards on the field in the spell and trap zone, the spots they were placed lighting up. "Not my big monster, but my first. And I'll leave him with a little something extra to back him up."

Although the group waited for it, 'Invasion's attack didn't rise. It glared fiercely across the field, but its stats were nowhere near as fierce. They glanced at each other, then back to the field. "Why would he play a monster weaker than Joey's?" Téa blurted, also trying to unravel the move. "It's not getting a field power bonus either."

Bakura suggested something interesting. "Maybe he doesn't have anything better?" But this is based on a television show, and that would be boring. So he's obliviously wrong.

Tristan's noggin on the other hand, the gears seemed to be working wonders. "It's got to be some kind of trap!" his own words clicked on his face, realizing what that meant. Now that explanation made sense to them. "Joey's about to fall right into it." Stressed expressions struck most of the group. But it didn't infect Yugi.

Meanwhile on the stage, Joey readied himself, the grin on his face back and in action. For whatever reason Leo had, it didn't change the fact that Joey's monster was far stronger. "'Dats too bad for you Leo. 'Battle Steer', finish that monster off." This caused his friends to call out to him in a panic and scolding manner.

"Don't do it!"

"It's a trap you idiot."

"Waaaaaa?! Trap?!" Joey yelled back, exaggerated pose of choice following. But him 'Tiger Ax' didn't stop, no matter how much his master and company wanted him to. Téa held her breath, Tristan smacked his face, and Bakura just looked grimy. An explosion of pixels cluttered the field.

And 'Battle Steer' stood just fine, victorious and quite safe. Everyone lets out a huge exasperated sigh, and/or anime fall (take your pick I don't care in the least), especially Joey, who clutched his chest with stress. He took a few deep breaths and rebuffed soon after. "What da heck is wrong with you guys! Stop freaking me out like that!"

"That was stressful." Bakura breathed.

"Guess I was wrong..." Tristan muttered. His sentence was cut off when Mother Goose wonked him over the head, clear irritation pulsing through her muscles. "Ow! What was that for?!"

Her eyes closed with a frustrated tick, Téa shook her fist. "What do you mean you guess? Next time don't shoot your mouth off like that unless you're sure. You nearly scared us to death."

"Guys." Dan Green's soft voice interjected. He had been silent this whole time, not falling into the drift of the overly dramatic moment. "When 'Invasion of Flames' is summoned, it doesn't allow any trap cards to be activated." Yugi put his hand to his face, going back into deep thought mode nearly instantly – missing Tristan's look to the sky with defeat and asking why Yugi didn't say so earlier. Instead Yugi was to focused, his lips tightening._ 'That doesn't mean this isn't a trap.' _Dan Green said, voicing Yugi's thoughts to the audience. _'Joey's gotta be more careful.'_

Leo's jaw had dropped agape long ago.

"Are you alright... um Joey?" he was almost half certain that Joey was recovering from – or going to have – some kind of heart attack. The blond leaned on his podium breathing in and out deeply. Maybe this duel wasn't good for Joey's health. Brooklyn Bond simply gave an exhausted thumbs up. "Er... right." was Leo's only means of reply. He picked through his hand, grabbing a monster and placing it on the Duel Ring. "You wanted to see one of my big monsters? Well take a look at this one." _A wicked wooden spirit that has burned out_ entered the game in attack mode. More commonly known as 'Charcoal Inpachi' (100/2100). Leaving everyone at a loss, just like before.

"Big is right." the 'Inpachi' towered over 'Battle Steer'. If not for the fact that these were holograms without mass, 'Inpachi's shadow would have engulfed the beast warrior.

"It sure is... but its doesn't strong." Bakura mused, struggle to relay this message to the others. "Look guys, it hardly has any attack points. Could Leo have made a mistake?"

_'I wouldn't count on it.'_ Yugi mused to himself.

Flipping one of this face down cards over, Leo's smile returned, clearly reassuring them that he hadn't done this on accident. "Are you ready for this Joey? It's time to show you how I got this far. Activate 'Creature Swap'."

_'Oh no!' _Was Yugi's only wide eyed thought. He knew what creature swap meant for Joey. And that was trouble.

"What does that do?" Téa worriedly consulted the expert – not that she really needed to know, but more or less so the viewer could become informed as to what was happening.

"It makes Joey and Leo switch monsters, meaning Leo now has control over 'Battle Steer'." Everyone understood what that meant. This was Leo's trap all along. And even though it was implied, making more dialogue unnecessary, Yugi continued, "This must be Leo's strategy, to use his opponent's power for himself." As they spoke, much to Joey's dismay, the two gained control of their new monsters. The blond didn't need to be on the sidelines to hear what Yugi said, he could listen just fine. And see it with his own eyes.

This was bad.

"But if Leo attacks, Joey's finished!"

Really bad.

"Are you ready Joey?" Leo called across the field. "I'm counting on you to come up with something interesting. Or else this is the end!"

Brooklin Blond went instantly to his face downs, lunging for 'Salamandra', thinking _'If I don't do something quick, I'm gonna be toast!' _If he didn't play this 'Battle Steer' would demolish his life points. _'Hold on.'_ Though it didn't seem right to waste 'Salamandra' like this. His hand touching the card, face twisted in thought, a strange manner called 'a thinking face', 'Salamandra' should be used to make his monsters stronger, not make them less weaker. _'If I play 'Salamandra' now, I won't get to use it later to strengthen my 'Flame Swordsman', or any other monster! But if I don't use it now he'll finish me. There's gotta be another way.'_

"You can do this Joey!" Yugi's voice broke through the others, through Joey's thick skull. He looked over to his friend questionably. "You've still card a card that can turn this around. Leo left a huge hole in his defenses, you just have to find it." He got the feeling Yugi wasn't talking about 'Salamandra'. What about_ that card_... yeah, there was a better option. And Joe-the-Bro-Wheeler had already prepped it.

Leo called out for 'Battle Steer' to attack and the cheerleaders waited anxiously. The creature started to charge, and Joey eagerly threw down his card. Yugi was right, this would change everything. "I wouldn't start counting your chickens if I were you." Joey grinned. "Take a good look Leo at my 'Shield and Sword' magic ca'd."

It was Leo's turn to cringe. He knew exactly what that meant. The card took attack and defense points and switched the numbers, bringing 'Battle Steer' down and 'Charcoal Inpachi' waaaaaaaay up. In short, he was going to be hurting. He cried out for 'Battle Steer' to stop, but the beast couldn't be bothered, futilely slashing across the tall and fearsome opponent, and disappeared into pixels.

Leo: **1590 lp**

Joey: **2000 lp**

Was this a moment to scratch his head or clap his hands? Some forum of pride began to swell up inside Leo, which he couldn't help but feel was sorely misplaced (due to the fact, of course, that Joey was his opponent and he had just thrown Leo into a huge disadvantage), but proud none the less. Joey had really managed to save himself there. He almost wanted to join the excited "Yeah, Joey!"s now erupting from the ground. With That came some fresh, exciting, and something he hadn't felt in a long time. This competitive fire he hadn't felt since Lynn.

With Leo's turn at an end, 'Shield and Sword' faded from the scene, along with it's effects. 'Inpachi' turned back into be a weakling, but a lot of good it did Leo now. Joey Wheeler wasn't someone to take lightly. With the shouting advice advice from his friends, being told 'not to forget' to turn 'Inpachi' to defense, along with some cleverly discouraging yet somehow encouraging feedback, he was right on spot with his moves. Drawing his next card made Joey look like such a goof.

He had stumbled across his soul card, his main man. The warrior in a dress who was practically on fire. "Sooo 'Battle Steer' was a bust. But he ain't the only powerful monster I got waiting for 'ya! Meet my 'Flame Swordsman' (1800/1600)." This was his chance to come back, and thing time Joey was sure he had exhausted Leo's trap. "And thanks to the field power bonus his attack raises to 2340."

There came a grumble from the side lines. "Did he just make the same move twice."

"You know Joey, if at first he doesn't succeeded, try, try and try again." Tristan sighed.

Bakura smiled, "I think what you're looking for is if it's not broken, don't fix it."

Joey turned down to his friend, grumbling over to them. "Hey! In case you guys haven't noticed, I've got the higher life points."

"Yeah, by a fluke." Tristan teased.

"I think we should cut we should cut Joey some slack. He did manage to turn the duel around." Yugi smiled, cheerfully gleaming at the rest.

Realizing that this had been two turns of, _whatever_ this was, Leo's brow crossed. The more this group talked, the less functional they seemed. Or at least, they should seem like they were growing apart, but somehow it was the opposite. All the banter, all the teasing, it transcended the normal barriers between individuals. Joey and his friends must have gone through a lot together to be so... close. Leo's teeth began to grind together lightly. This aggravation, yet amusing feeling, the edges of his lips curled sadly, he was jealous. "He hasn't turned it around yet." Leo dropped a monster card on the field, concealing his storm of emotions into calm. Looking as strong and confident as a warrior, the pyro monster 'Flame Champion' (1900/1300) rose to the field, her shield strung up on one arm and sword on another. "Sorry Joe, I'm sort of a sore loser."

The podium registered the spell card Leo played next. "Combining my 'Flame Champion' with the magic of 'Burning Land' may create, you'll find, a very interesting result."

Puzzled at first, Joey pondered where he had heard that before. As 'Flame Champion's shield burst suddenly with fire, and lifted above her head, it clicked. _'That's the combination Yugi used against Weevil.' _Which meant – Joey gasped. "My field power bonus!"

'Flame Champion' thrust her fiery shield into the ground and almost immediately the meadow below began to set on fire. Flames crackled at the spread from one blade of grass to the next and to the next. Leo snapped excitedly at this new pace, "That's right! Pyro monsters have a very special trait, the island doesn't have a field for them, but fire has the unique power to destroy most other fields." The dancing of light and darkness slowly began to brighten and dull 'Flame Champion's and 'Flame Swordsman's features. The latter's attack point dropping rapidly.

Moments later, Leo's command sent the two to engaged combat, in the heat of the battle field, 'Flame Swordsman' clutched onto his sword and charged, entering the attack range of his rival. Fire circled to two as he swung downwards. 'Champion' knelt down, lifting shield up and catching 'Swordsman's strike on her shield. A great clang rung out from the holograms. With her right hand, 'Champion' thrust her rebound.

It was too swift, another clang ringing through the field, only this time sword against sword. Leo's eyes couldn't follow the way the warrior slide his sword away from the shield, blocking the attack. The two exchanged a few more blows, sparks flying from the holograms. They were so close, arm in arm, sword in sword, but still, 'Flame Champion' was stronger. So why was Joey's monster fighting so hard? Mathematically, there was no way he could win. Why didn't he just give in? Leo's stomach started to churn and his teeth grind harder. "Time to give up Joey, no matter what you do I'll always have something to overcome your power."

"No can do." Swords meeting, the fire started to illuminated the faces of duelists. "You're good Leo, really good. But I gotta be even better. I'm dueling for my sister, so I can't afford to loose to you or anyone else."

Leo's teeth parted. "Your sister?"

"She needs me right now more than ever, and I'd do anything to help her out. That's why I fight, why I play to win." Joey was dueling for someone special, for a reason besides to simply duel. _That's why he fights._ That's why he was standing here, at the podium right now, that was why 'Flame Swordsman' was fighting back with all his might. He flipped the card in his Spell/Trap zone up, activating it. "It's time for you to meet my secret weapon. I play my 'Salamandra' magic card to raise my 'Flame Swordsman' attack to 2500."

As the flaming monsters' swords parted again, a blaze appeared, and engulfed 'Flame Swordsman's weapon. His opponent was sent instant on alert, her face twisting with caution and her leg muscles snapping into action, bouncing back to put an arms lengths of space between them.

He really just didn't give up. Joey was making another comeback. How the... Why couldn't he... when the blond said he was motivated he really meant it. Leo's breath escaped his lungs, understanding 'Flame Champion's pain. He wished he could jump back now.

The battle below continued. It didn't stop, but only got fiercer, attacks scattering more flames to add to the fire surrounding.

"So tell me Leo," 'Swordsman' swung down and 'Champion' jumped to the right, barley dodging. Now she was on the defensive. But her drive, it wasn't nearly as strong she... "why do you fight?" Every part of Leo's body froze.

Huh?

"I... don't know what you mean." Why did he fight? What kind of question was that? Leo didn't have some deep reason for being here, he just had to get away. "I'm not like you, Joey, I don't have anything like a sister or anything. There's no one depending on me like that."

Joey shook his head, the blond strands that hung in from of his eye waving back and forth. "I'm no expert, but I can tell by the way you duel. Something or someone is driving you. Maybe you just don't know what it is yet." 'Champion's retreat to the side caught 'Swordsman' by surprise, and he had to react quickly to counter his blow. Their blades clashed again, only this time, neither side gave way. The virtual metals met, and both sides pushed. Both duel monsters, both players, every eye starring the scene down was reflecting the battlefield.

"THAT'S ENOUGH." Leo's words came from his core, bellowing out. 'Collected Power' entered the field, the lights outline his brow, his scrunched nose and twisted frown. The tensity of his cheekbones. 'Collected Power' being a trap card that Leo played his first turn. He knew that Joey would resort to a equip spell. He could see it a mile away because Leo could read Joey like a book, Joey the average easy to beat duelist. Joey the feel good goof who has few personal boundaries. The weird guy who charges strangers for food. Leo had seen hundreds of him before, in school, at work, in duels, or at least that's what he had been so sure of. But somehow this side character, with no connection to the plot or the back story, this everyday nobody somehow managed to get into his head.

'Champion's blade began to glow, and at the same time, 'Swordsman's began to dull. Both retreated their swords and instantly struck again, both blades aflame, both muscles tight. Once, twice, the clashing was quick and just impossible. And on the third blow, 'Champion' lunged from the side, and 'Swordsman' struck in the center. The ashes of the flames exploded in a puff, covering the two monsters.

Joey held his breath.

Amy covered her mouth, butt on the ground, eyes widened.

Téa's hands folded within each other held to her chest.

Tristan's fists tightened, the rest of his muscles not daring to even flinch.

Bakura gasp was silent.

Yugi starred hard at the field, never loosing eye contact. The hand he was holding half a moment ago helping get up squeezed his.

When the ash cloud began to clear, one dark outline stood up in the haze. A sword glimmered, not flaming or burning, but just a sword, gripped tightly with one hand. And a shield in the other.

Leo: **1590**

Joey: **1200**

The hologram fire that was once a meadow continued to thrive, but the ash cloud vanished into it. 'Flame Champion' looked upon it's audience, starring them down with the hardened eyes of a survivor. She turned her body, her head, to where her advisory once stood and raised her hand, and thrust the sword upon the spot. They boys, Leo and Joey were panting, sweating. The sourness in Leo's expression was now replaced with an exhausted grin. One that Joey returned, equally as tiring. "You're good Joey..."

"Could say the same thing 'bout you."

The boys took deep breaths for a couple seconds longer, while the less hearty member(s) of the group couldn't even find theirs (hers) yet. Leo even wiped the perpetration from his face using the inside of his sweater. They stayed that way for a few moments.

"You know," Leo started finally, "when I played this, I didn't think I would actually use it."

Joey didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but it didn't seem to bother him. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. You've played my hand Wheeler, but I think it's about time this duel came to an end, how about you."

"I'm listening."

Leo paused for another second. "I really hate gambling." Even though he said that, the boy's grin could only get wider. He flipped his last trap card up. 'The Paths of Destiny'. Ashes roses from the ground as a large structure with it. Not so much a structure as much as trees, clusters of trees could barely be seen through the ash cluster that surrounded it. "There's two paths, one to victory, and one to defeat, one to the left and the other to the right. You can pick either one."

Joey put his cards down on the top of the podium, still woven within his fingers. "I got one condition."

His opponent nodded slowly.

"If I guess right, you've got to promise that the next time we meet, you'll have figured out what you're fighting for."

Still on that, huh? Joey Wheeler really did never quit. "Fine. But if you choose wrong, you have to let me in on your group." Leo was surprised as soon as the words processed from his mouth. He hadn't expected that world dribble. He could even feel his ears heat up at how ridiculous it sounded.

"You got a deal." Not hesitating for a second, Joey confirmed it. They made eye contact, Joey and Leo, and while they didn't shake hands, the promise was still strongly bonded. Anyone could tell.

So Brooklyn Blond looked at the field, at the identical outlines hidden. The left or the right, which one was the path to victory? Serenity depended on this choice, this was a whole Star Chip at stake. There was such a big difference between one chip and three. "Hey!" The words came from the sidelines, and broke Joey's concentration. Obliviously indeed in his direction, the voice wasn't male, but female. And by this point, he knew just who it was. Amy had one hand on her hip, standing straight up and scowling like a champ, and though she was up now, her fingers were still intertwined with Yugi's. He stood right next to her, neither of them seemed to noticed. Everyone was too busy looking at her face, a confident sneer that had been sadly missing for too long. "I meant what I said on the boat. You're one of the luckiest people I know, I know you'll pick the right one."

Joey nodded, his cheekbones were starting to ache from grinning so much. "Alright Leo, I choose the one on the left." He pointed, and the ashes blew away quickly. Virtually dissipating into what was left of the field. The fires had died, and the ashes mixed in the grey of the smokey land. Only to reveal from the left lush green leaves and a shinning forest – a shimmering monument in the otherwise barren wasteland.


	20. Chapter Eighteen: Back On Track

[On Track]

Disclaimer: So that Dueling Network C&amp;D, amirtie? Boy things are getting messy In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh copyright once again. It's only a matter of time before they come for the fanfictions next. How scary is that?

Narrator's Note: Yo. Ew. I can't believe I just said "yo". What am I? Human? I've got to keep my integrity up as a proud block of text acting as the narrator.

As your narrator, I come bearing an abundance of excuses as to why, for those of you old readers that came back for some reason, I've been doing zero storytelling for the last six months. But I don't care about them. You don't care about them. Oh look, we're on the same page. Isn't that `effin swell? You just want to get to the story and I just want to get this over with.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen - Back On Track: "We're Yugi Muto, and, er, company."**

Alternate Titles: Hey Look! Hiatus?!, The Kaiba Boys PtI, The Kaiba Bois, Yes You are Seeing What You Think You're Seeing I'm Back With a Chapter, What's This Feeling?

* * *

"Here you go." Leo handed his opponent a Star Chip, after which he held his hand out to gesture a friendly handshake. Joey responded with a grin. "You beat me fair and square."

After the shake, the blond placed the chip in his glove and for a moment it gleamed. "I had fun! Hope we can duel again sometime."

"I'd like that." Leo put his deck away into his deck box with a nod.

"And don't forget, you have a promise to keep."

"Right, go on a philosophical journey. Piece of cake." Leo felt the need to roll his eyes at how silly that sounded. But still, he did made a promise. He mulled over the group one more time, glancing from member to member, thinking that next time, he'd actually like to duel Yugi.

It wasn't until Leo's vision fell upon Amy that he paused. She was turned away from him, talking to Yugi, so he could only see her profile. That was all he needed to see, because in a moment, Leo felt his heart freeze. The perception of his vision slowed, and the noise of the world became muttered. Something about her seemed familiar, the lining of her chin and eyes. Why hadn't he noticed her before? Though he scanned his brain, he couldn't remember her face in the group.

Joey was surprised when Leo cut their conversation, and wandered to his friends. "Whats up with you?" Leo just waved him off, as if to say 'nothing', but his mouth was too dry to say it. Téa, Bakura, and the rest of the minor characters watched him walk towards Yugi, eyebrows arched. Leo's heartbeat felt slow now, as if he could hear every blood cell pumping thumps in his ears. His whole world started to move like this, his walking, reaching out to grab Amy's shoulder.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

Amy could only grumble as Joey got off the Duel Ring. She could only grumble congratulations. Sure in the moment she had cheered him on, but that was in the moment. Now she had a keen interest in knowing what the hey was going on. If she could just get in between the celebration long enough to get an answer or two.

In complete honesty, congratulating Joey wasn't the first thing she did. That was search for food. The fruits of her hunting ended with a cold fish, once cooked, and now just sitting out in the air loosing all flavor. She took a sniff of it and felt her nostrils cringe.

"Nasty [4filter] cold fish."

And with a selfish flick of her wrist, all of Joey's fish eating dreams had disappeared.

Stomach still lacking food and brain still lacking answers she searched for the weak link in the group and pulled Yugi out, and as polite as a cow asked him for an update. He had only been explaining for a few seconds when she felt her upper torso yanked the other way, which cause her to instantly slap the hand away from her shoulder, growling, "What the hey is your problem."

The face that met hers was taken aback, and so was she. Amy's eyes darted from his brown hair, to his eyes wide in surprise, to his fine cheeks and sagging shoulders. The frustrated snap about to come out of her mouth turned off, to busy listening to her heart beat now taking up most of her senses. Red curled up on her cheeks.

Amiee's spirit appeared beside her, lips puckered in confusion,_ 'What's wrong.'_

It took a minute, but she let out a deep breath, blinked slowly, and recomposed her face. _'Nothing, I was just surprised.'_ Out loud, Amy phrased her words carefully. "Can I help you?"

Leo looked like he was trying to find the right words himself, but had trouble putting them together. "Sorry, I just..."

"You just what?"

Almost everyone looked sharply or surprised at her hostility. "Amy," Yugi started, "this is Leo. We just met him." A part of him seemed to hope that this explication would quell the conflict.

Her upper lip curled cruelly. "Were you the guy Joey was dueling? I'm sorry for your loss, it's a shame to see you go, better luck next time." Amy's head was racing now, hoping, waiting for the heat from her face to dismiss. "The loser boat should be taking off soon, don't want to miss it. I'm sure there's a prime spot next to Weevil Underwood."

Leo's surprise stiffened, he knew just how to respond. His mind was no longer on what she looked like, but what her problem was. "Thanks, but your concern is misplaced. My Star Chips would weigh down the boat, someone else will have to sit next to the regional champion."

This caused Amy to bite down on her tongue. What was he expecting her to say? Her bad attitude was meant to scare him off, but she should have known better. "That's too bad, it was your easy out."

That might have been a threat. Or a promise? Even she wasn't sure. The words just slipped out of her mouth. It certainly wasn't the most subtle thing to say.

"I don't take easy outs."

The two looked at each other, eye to eye, scowl to scowl, a flare of tension building. "You don't, huh? So that's not why you're here? For an easy out?" Amy growled, both cheeks now lit up viciously red.

Leo found his mouth dry at that statement. What did this girl know about anything? It was like the less polite, more judgmental way of Joey's question.

He wasn't the only one with a 'what da hell does that mean' response. It was relatively unanimous among the crowd. The spectators surrounding them had a hard time processing the scene. It wasn't until Yugi, who while trying to find logical explanations to the eruption, asked, "Amy, Leo, do you to know each other?" How else could two strangers possibly fight so instantly. Amy easily started arguments with anybody, but they were always lively fights. It was never this... deep.

Amy and Leo felt like they were speaking another language all together, as if their words had an underlying meaning that only they could understand. Similar to an inside joke, where everyone else was at a loss as to whats so funny. But by the look on their faces, even Amy and Leo didn't seem to be absorbing the underlying messages of their conversation.

Leo was the first to reply, "No, I have no acquaintances that go by the name of 'Amy'."

And her lip curled again, only this time bitterly. "Oh, don't you?" Amy turned on her heels and started to march away, the ends of her worlds highlight the last grain of patience.

"Hold on," she heard Leo call, and suddenly felt a latch onto her shoulder. Amy snapped her shoulder around to shake the hand away, but his grip was too tight and he grabbed hold of the jacket instead. "we're not done here!" The two opposite forces, her insistence in leave and his insistence in making Amy stay, erupted. As soon as she felt her sleeve tug, the girls mind blanked and her body did the first thing it could do to escape, it rapidly slipped her arm out of the unbuttoned blazer.

She twisted to slide her other arm out, sharply and suddenly, both tense and panicked, but lost her footing as they danced to catch up with her movements. Amy knew one thing while her arms felt the air strike her bare skin for the first time all day and feet stumbled to the side to face the group. She was so done here. Without so much looking at her friends she rubbed her hands on her arm feeling the fabrics of the tank top, Amy turned around and ran, ignoring everyone else.

Yugi and the others followed her, and Leo was left standing there, face twisted in surprise. His eyes glued to Amy's back. He didn't notice Téa's apologetic wave, or Tristan's questioning glance. Leo's eyes didn't leave that scar plastered on her left shoulder.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

When Yugi caught up with Amy, she was slightly out of breath, sweat drops beating down from the side of her forehead. Yugi himself found his chest heaving in and out, squatting and putting is hands on his knees for support. Of course, it meant Yugi had questions. After that scene who wouldn't? They both took a moment to pause, and regain their senses. Amy could feel her legs burning and heart throbbing – but the thing that made her groan in pain was the oncoming questionnaire. Sure enough, Yugi breathed, "What happened back there?"

Classic Yugi, giving the benefit of the doubt. It almost made her smile bitterly. If this had been Joey, well the question would have sounded more like, "What's the big idea?" and even better, a Tristan classic, "What's your damage?" And lord knows if it had been the other way around, Amy would have been %110 "What the hell dude."

But not Yugi. That's what made him different from the rest. What made him so different from Amy. They were such opposites. Even now, after she had clearly acted up, blow everything out of proportion, she was sarcastic and embarrassed and he was finding ways to justify the scene. What a little fugger. Amy diverted her eyes elsewhere, to the surprising green of the blades of grass and the stunning mid afternoon sky. And oh look, there's the ocean dropping into the scenery – look literately anything else, lets pay attention to it, is what she wanted to say. "He just weird-ed me out." Those words led to her jaw shifting back and forth, as if her mouth processed what exactly to say.

She could tell by the way he scrunched his nose and felt along the edge of the puzzle with his thumb that he wanted to pry, but felt obligated not to cross lines she didn't want to have crossed. So she sighed, knowing that she'd regret this but anyone else would have just come out and say it. Yugi should be able to too. "What is it Sport? Spit it out already." she clicked.

"He's seems like a nice guy, maybe you should give him another chance."

By another, Yugi meant a _real_ chance. Not just running away on sight. "What makes you think he's so friggin' nice?"

"I could tell by the way he dueled."

Amy knew in the back of her mind two things: this was how Yugi judged people. By what kind of duelist he or she was. And it was usually pretty spot on. Secondly, she knew that Yugi wasn't wrong, but that knowledge came with the fact that she hadn't been totally honest with Yugi. _We need to talk. _That's what she wanted to say, now that she finally had a moment alone with the guy. Instead, what came out was "Gwads! What is wrong with you Yugi? Did you forget why we're here? Someone kidnapped you grandpa; _magically_. You can't just trust people because they lost a card game." She stiffened. Her head was shouting_ 'What the hell, Amy?! Why are you such a [4filter]?! Just come out and say it!'_ and wishing she could slam her hands into her face repetitively. But her outward expression told a different story, one that caused Yugi to take a step back.

Her ears were heating up for the umpteenth time today, heart racing rapidly. There it was, the tightening of regret. She's finally crossed the line. Amy could see the walls building between them just by looking him in the eyes. This was the one relationship she hadn't destroyed yet, until now. _'[4filter], [4filter], [4filter].' _The moment he stepped back, her arm reached out and grabbed his.

Maybe it was shivering from her now bare, exposed skin, or maybe it was trembling, but Amy could feel herself shaking. She swallowed hard, not to swallow her excess saliva made from her extra stress, but to choke down her pride. "Wait." the words came out hesitantly, but frantically serious. Even she heard the underlying nervousness. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it! Really!" her grip around Yugi's wrist tightened, "Don't go... something important is going to happen. And I don't want to screw it up anymore than I have.

"What happened back there is I just... I think I know him from somewhere. Maybe not a good somewhere, or a bad... exactly..." the words were blubbering out of her mouth senselessly. It was as if truth was trying to dribble out, but now that it was here it didn't know how. "I don't want to mix up the lines between then and now."

The babble managed to do one thing, it caused Yugi to pause. He considered her words carefully. For the first time it felt like she was being honest with him, if not only half honest. It was still a step in the right direction. A step towards being true companions. His muscles relaxed and Amy's desperate grip softened.

She looked on curiously as he reached into his pants pocket. When he was done, his hand emerged as a fist, and she got the sudden hunch that she should follow along. So Amy held out her arm silently, unable to look away from the transaction, and not sure what she should be expecting.

What she got certainly wouldn't have been one of her top ten guesses.

He dropped into her hand two, small, star like objects. They pricked at her palms as she looked down at their glimmer. Before she asked any questions, Amy glanced straight at his Dueling Gauntlet and at the three Star Chips so neatly in place. Her brain started pumping overtime trying to figure out why he hadn't placed Mako's chips in his glove.

Although she didn't have to wonder for long. It was clear that there was no duel with Mako Tsunami. When she saw the fish, she had just assumed... but, Yugi's next words confirmed her anxieties. "I've been meaning to give these to you. They're yours, aren't they?"

Her eyebrows crossed, the touch of metal pressing against her skin. "I don't know what you mean."

"You told me that you were a contestant, didn't you? That you had Star Chips and lost them?"

_'In T__é__a's washing machine.'_ Amy's face blanked at her own response.

Yugi held firm on his theory, despite the platter of confused expressions being projected his way. "They were on the roof the day you guys fought. At the time thought it might be another student's but when you mentioned it I thought they might be yours instead."

Then her brain stopped working overtime. In fact it stopped working all together. All her numb thoughts could process was the oh so in depths sentence. _'Not in T__é__a's washing machine.'_ Like a literary pro. She wished she could say something, anything, to stop Yugi from talking. "You should be more careful with them. I still don't know what lines you aren't trying to blur, but whatever it is I'm sure you'll need those to do it. Just like Joey and I."

When she finally found the words, they were meek and oblivious and could do nothing but ask a single question that you probably don't need answered. Amy though, she did need the answer. She needed to know. "Why didn't you just keep them?"

"They aren't mine to take. I know you've got your own reason for being here, so you should use your Star Chips to accomplish that. I'm fighting for grandpa. Joey's fighting for his sister. You're also fighting for something, and we all do better when we work as a team."

"Thank you." the words flowed out of Amy's mouth as less than whisper. "It was pretty cool of you to come after me. So, um, thanks for that too." Her face lite up at that moment. His did as well. One hand clutching the chips, the other lay at her side. Suddenly, Amy's bare hand felt so empty. All she wanted to do was fill it with something, longing to make it's loneliness go away. So her body did something unexpected. It reached out and took Yugi's hand in hers. Not fully, but wrapped itself around a couple of his fingers. For the third time, she repeated her words, only this time it was different. They were smooth, sweet, and foreign to Amy as she knew herself. "Thanks."

That was it, the end of their little moment. Because as the cliché goes, its right when the others joined them. Yugi and Amy instantly disconnected, looking opposite ways. Both their faces remained flushed, Amy's even more so as Téa's eyeballs started to dig holes into her aura. Amy cleared her throat with a fake cough. "It's about time you guys caught up."

She felt pressure on the top of her head, and a force pushing her down. Though she pushed back, it got the best of her and was able to bob the top of her head around. "It's about time you stopped running off. Seriously! We need to put a leash on you or something." Tristan's words came in from her left, and she could see Joey and Bakura nodding from her right.

"D-do not."

Amy wanted to smack herself in the face for stammering, but her brain was still in a haze of pink and red. A mental image of what she did was just starting to form. As well as a visual of what it must have looked like to the others, if they saw it, and even more so what it looked like to Yugi. Then more than those, what it actually was.

A nearby scream for help did her the favor and made the colors clear again.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

As fate would have it, Kemo was roughing up a poor, unfortunate duelist only seconds away from where the group was standing. Granted, the timing could have been better, as the Robo-Ken was already hauling the duelist towards the docks. Out of context, the whole thing was a fairly unsettling scene. You know that Mokuba had stolen the boy's Star Chips and Kemo was escorting him to the losers boat. I know that Mokuba stole the kid's chips and Kemo was dragging towards the loser boat. Even Amy knew the guy had been unfairly ripped of by the plot and was being heave-howed to the land of rejects. But even with that knowledge, a grown, greasy looking adult carrying a kid as he screams for help is still more than a little creepy.

"Help me! Somebody! Please!"

"Oy vey. We get it already." Amy called out to him as they closed in on Kemo. The smell of the salt floating in from the ocean started over overtake the air once again. Amy could almost taste the cold morning wind in her mouth again.

Appropriately, Kemo turned around to face his aggressors. The kid continued to struggle and thrash about, his legs pushed the air every which way. That panic changed as soon as he saw the gang, something which made Amy pause. She saw a glimmer of hope the kids eyes. It made her heart thump loudly.

Tristan was ready to lunge, immediately tightening his muscles for the leap. But Amy held out her hands, knowing that it would just end in an unnecessary thrashing. Instead she puffed out her chest, like the important business partner she was. (You know, in case you returning humans who've been waiting through the hiatus forgot.)

Kemo proceeded to snort, "Well what do you know, its the stowaway." in an absolutely disgusting fashion. Knowing he was taking about her gave Amy chills, but she stood her ground.

"You're positively grotesque, you know that Kemo? What exactly is going on here?"

"This is none of your business. This duelist lost his Star Chips." Robo-Ken said so a-matter-of-fact that Amy almost let Tristan go. And was tempted to send Joey and herself along with him. "And the rules say he is to be kicked off the island."

The hope in the boy's eyes wavered back into panic. "But I didn't lose my chips in a duel! They were stolen from me! My cards, too."

"Well that [4filter]." Was honestly the most sincere thing she could muster. And strangely, Amy didn't feel like she was playing along, but rather like she meant every word. It really did [4filter].

At this point, some of the more aggressive members of the group were starting to crowd around Kemo, covering him from varying directions. Even if they did leap into action now, Kemo would side step them and the boys would only end up butting heads. "You heard 'em, he didn't loose his chips. So put him down ya creep."

"No chips, no chance. You need Star Chips to duel and this kid doesn't have any, so it's time to ship out."

Past them, the boat was being bumped up and down by the waves. Amy could see some of the faces, sullen and disappointment in themselves for loosing. Oh, and Weevil. There was so much satisfaction in seeing bug boy on the boat, muttering to himself and/or his small family of insects. Out of all those faces, Amy realized that the boy Kemo was holding didn't look like them. He wasn't disappointment in himself, he was disappointed at the world for giving him a chance for something great and then taking it away.

It would have been like if the universe gave Amy the chance to help Amiee, then took it away. She would feel empty, hollow, and worth nothing. There was succeeding and failing, and then there was something worse – not being allowed to do either. No, if this kid was going out, he should go out on his own terms.

Aw [4filter]. Now Amy was personally invested in the matter. She looked over to Yugi, who was focused ahead, and back to the boy. "Is that all?" the girl said finally.

Kemo clearly didn't like where that phrase was going.

She continued, without waiting for his reply. "So we just have to get his stolen Star Chips back, and then he's free to lose them on his own later of his own accord." She got a couple of stale looks from her companions, meaning she could have worded that better, but Amy merely shrugged. "There's no way he should get booted out for such a crap technicality."

"I agree." Yugi frowned at his own statement. "What did the guy look like."

It was more than a little strange trying to have a conversation with the duelist considering he still had Kemo's arm in his esophagus. That and his feet were still dangling and slightly flailing about. "I couldn't see his face, it was covered with a bandanna. But he was a little guy and he challenged me in the meadow." Amy felt her face twitch, knowing we were getting off topic from the original question, 'what did he look like.'

"Summarize dude. That boat isn't going to stay there forever."

"As soon as I put my Star Chips and Duel Monsters Deck down, he snatched them up and ran off with them."

All things considered - that Pegasus didn't give a flying [4filter] about the actual tournament and its rules - that's actually a pretty sound strategy. Just saying.

"That defiantly shouldn't disqualify you from the tournament. We'll get your Star Chips back." Yugi chimed in, his face becoming rather heroic. A week ago, Amy would have rolled her eyes, but today was different. She begrudgingly agreed. They should do everything in their power to give him a second chance. The others chimed in as well: that they'd be sure to help him out, that they wouldn't let him be bullied out of the game, and Bakura said something or other about side questing.

Amy looked at the boy, then at Kemo, and declared with a huff, "We'll be back in thirty minutes." She puffed her chest out again and stood up straight.

"Thirty minutes is all you're getting. Not a second more." Robo-Ken's response was gruff and less then amused. "After that, anyone without Star Chips is getting on that boat." A statement that Amy felt it appropriately to respond to with a snort.

Turning her back on the scene, Amy crossed her arms and started marching towards the meadow. Her chin pointed upwards, the sky wide and bright, so ready to get past all of this nonsense and back to the game at hand. As well as to clean her karma by doing some good for someone else. Then, maybe to triumph over fate being a [4filter]. Although one more question made her turn around, only slightly.

Awe brimming from the tears in his eyes, the duelist could hardly bring himself to grasp the chain of events. What lucky, or unlucky, force lead these random strangers into a situation where he would have to rely on them? More over, that fate would pick people willing to help him, or at least try. So with the abundance of questions he had, right now this one seemed most important. "Hold on. Who even are you guys?"

The short girl's head popped over her shoulder slightly, just enough so he could see the side of her big, mischievous pupils. "We're Yugi Muto" a tinge of a flush crept over the side of her cheeks, "and, er, company." It was suddenly then that the duelist recognized the tri-colored hair among the group, and the realization hit him that he was indeed being rescued by the Yugi Moto. And company.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"You know you could have introduced the rest of us too." Joey grumbled as they walked towards the meadow arena. "By the time this tournament is done, Joey Wheeler is gonna be a big household name. He outta know it!" Tristan snickered at that, also adding a subtle 'you wish' into the mix.

Although Amy was less then amused. She rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "What part of a thirty minute deadline did you not understand? You know what, no, your right. I should have stopped us and made sure to give the kid – who's name we still don't know, by the way – each of our full names, profiles, and an in depth description of each of our character stocks. Because that was all information essential to our task."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

As you've probably expected by this point, Yugi stepped in, saying, "Guys, focus. Maybe if we go back the scene of the crime we can discover some clues."

"You're right Yugi." Amy admittance was less annoyed than you may first expect. Until you consider almost immediately she reached up, grabbed Joey by the collar and dragged him down to her eye level. After examining his head, she let him go while he sputtered some Brooklyn Rage nonsense and said "I have returned to the scene of the crime and can accurately conclude that Joey was just born stupid."

Her companions proceeded to walk past her wordlessly, arriving shortly at the Duel Ring. She stood in place at first, waiting for someone to retort with something witty, but soon ran out of patience and huffed on. "Oh come on guys, that was funny."

"Sorry Am." Tristan said while inspecting the edge of the ring. "That one didn't even make sense." Bakura even gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder along with a 'better luck next time.'

Over by a nearby bush, she knelt down, muttering something about everyone losing their sense of humor while she was asleep. Yugi suggested to the others that the culprit may return to the Duel Ring to strike again while Amy pulled back the branches of the bush. Where she blinked, and the whole world paused for a second while she processed the wide eyes and bandanna covered face starring her down. He looked surprised to have been caught, just as she was surprised to have found him. This caused a dry croak from Amy to her companions, "Or he never left."

Her assailant was quicker on the recovery. He was playing it all out in his head, the thief just had to make it past this girl and he'd go straight for Yugi who was sitting on the grass defenseless. Just as Amy finished speaking, he pushed her out of the way in an attempt to make his escape. Although his plan had a fatal flaw he hadn't accounted for. Tristan the rock wall, positioned not to far behind Amy.

"I got him."

Tristan scooped the thief up by his armpits as soon as they would have collided, and held him up in the air. Instantly, the little guy began to thrash about, shouting, "Hey! Let go of me." in his little adolescent voice.

Joey approached the scene. "So you're the crook, eh? I think you owe my friend some Star Chips."

As the group gathered around, Yugi took one look at the boy and bid his friends to cool off. "Hold on you guys."

"What the matter, Yug? Isn't this the guy?"

Amy answered that one. "Oh he's the guy."

"Put me down you big oaf, or I swear you'll be sorry!"

To this, Amy rubbed her once again sore bottom, "Tristan, don't be a Kemo. It doesn't look good on your resume." With a less than amused glance in her direction, Tristan set the flailing thief down.

Any doubt how young the assailant was disappeared as soon as he hit the ground. Kids bounce back at an unbelievably fast rate. They're loud and so focused they're not able to focus on anything else but a single goal. Before anyone could blink, the thief seemed to have already moved past Tristan. In fact he seemed to have forgotten him all together. The boy had his eyes glued on someone else.

"I've been searching for you everywhere for you Yugi, and now I finally found you." There was aggression in the way this kid tightened his fists, but not the kind that would threaten adults by any means.

The two of them linked eye contact for a brief second. Yugi could see the youth, and the frustration there. There was a tug of familiarity, and it seemed to Yugi that by looking at him, he understood something. It wasn't a complete grasp of that something, but he could sense at least part of the message.

"You want to duel me, don't you?"

"You better believe I do."

The matter seemed to be settled. Beyond settled. Yugi, now being overshadowed by Yami, and the masked boy went to their respective sides of the Duel Ring and laid their Star Chips down. Three for each. Yami took out all three of his chips, one after another as the onlookers starred in puzzlement.

"I don't get it." Joey bluntly stated, surprising no one in the group. "Why is Yugi going through all the trouble dueling this guy when we could just take those Star Chips away from him."

Yami's eyes shone clear across the field. He agreed on the all or nothing Star Chips wager, sensing the "something" that Yugi had come close to. He sensed a special connection to Seto Kaiba, and for that he owed this duelist a shot of explaining himself and understanding him actions the only way anyone knew how. Dueling.

"You know something I don't think Yugi know why he does half the stuff he does." Tristan said.

Spot on Detective Tristan, spot on.


	21. Chapter Nineteen: The Star Chip Mission

[On Track]

Disclaimer: _What's your favorite idea? Mine is explaining the copyright._

How do you explain the copyright?

_Not with Youtube's Copyright School. (jk)_

_Now when you look at this fanfic, tell me please, who do think?_

I just think about boring old Yu-Gi-Oh.

_Maybe to you, but not to Konami._

_Konami sees lots of profit, marching along, making movies_

I don't see what you mean.

_`Cause you're not thinking in terms of money!_

_So take a look at this show. _(cool)_ The animation came all the way from Japan._

But isn't the dub owned by a US company?

_...The animation comes all the way from Japan._

_Now when you take a look at thi-_

Disclaimer for Disclaimer: Okay, no, I can't. You probably couldn't tell, but I was using "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" as the reference here. And I'm just going to go ahead and squash that before it gets out of hand.

Plus, I can't actually explain copyright. Especially Yu-Gi-Oh. Convoluted as [4filter].

Narrators Note: Speaking of song references, there's a Marty Bags "You're Not Me" reference in the beginning. It's not subtle. I also squashed that before it got too out of hand.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen - The Star Chip Retrieval Mission " My 'Man-Eating Plant' will eat your dragon alive."** (lol no it won't)

Alternate Titles: The Start of Something New?, The Kaiba Boys PII, We Aren't so Different

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Here's something that's really astounding: this whole Seto Kaiba is not an [4filter] filler. The whole plot drags three episodes, invents a really ugly and bogus Eliminator, and has a duel conclusion that makes no sense. One would assume that a corporate take over subplot would be interesting. One would be wrong, apparently.

Don't get me wrong, it's very touching to know the dilemma of Mokuba and Seto Kaiba. At least the first time. The second, third, and fourth times the subject is dry and boring. By that point we understand that Mokuba and Seto love each other. We get it, they don't got it all. They don't got it made. That their only friends are the ones they pay, leaving Mokuba on his own to protect everything he and his brother have. Everything glamorous thing that Seto worked for. Even though no one understands what he'd do to change his life for just one day.

Concerning Mokuba's incredibly bold and kind of ill planned actions, I can't say "if I were him", I would have done something different. Or tell him what to do. How things would be if I were in his shoes. 'Cause I'm not him.

Although what I can say is, boy, did you really think that you could beat Yugi? Your brother couldn't beat Yugi. I'm not even sure Mokuba has ever dueled, even when he was a sadistic little eff in original Yu-Gi-Oh. In the Death-T he played a game of "I poisoned da' cake lol" and some whacked version of capsule monsters chess. Yet there he is, up on the Ring, desperately throwing down cards.

Yugi and the thief, who I'm going to just drop the descriptive title and just call him by his name because we all know who he is, readied their cards.

"What does Yugi see that we don't? Its like he's looking into the other player's soul." Téa asked. Well ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. All things considered Téa's pretty good at picking up on all the supernatural stuff. Probably something about have an open mind and believing in others and blah blah blah helps with. It's at least one sliver of credit I can give miss Mother-May-I-Nag.

Even though she asks a lot of stupid questions. Hey, not everything can have a silver lining. Take the previous question for example, while its expositional dialog meant to cue the audience in on a character device, it's kind of stupid to ask. Who exactly was she expecting to answer? Was she expecting Tristan to turn to her with a face suited for a puppy kicker and say, "Yes I know every corner of the inner workings of Yugi's mind." Because that's about as likely as my fanfiction senpais noticing me.

To my point, she was met with an appropriate response. "Hey, soul shmoul. I can see from here that that kid's gonna get his butt kicked."

With that Amy reached up and stretched her arms, something which she hadn't done since she awoke from her princess like slumber. In fact, this was the first time she felt like she could relax since. "Well no duh, he's like... twelve." Even her snark was coming back. Oh life was sweet again.

"Maybe, but Yugi should hurry if he plans to get those Star Chips back to the boat in time."

Amy could only nod a Tristan's comment. "True. I get why Yugi's doing what he's doing, but it's kind of an inefficient system. Still, what needs to get done has got to get done." She muttered this to herself more than anyone, but the others still heard her and sent questioning glances. Joey even followed up with a, "You lost me there. You understand what Yug's doing?" So Amy proceeded to pout and shrug. Best save ever. Gold star. She felt Amiee's mental sympathetic pat.

All the more reason that when Téa tried to reassure everyone that they would be back at the docks with time to spare, Amy kept her mouth shut. Anything she blurted could only make things worse for her case. I bet in some world, in some version out there, Téa says something actually intelligent here. Like, if she said, "Maybe Yugi knows the thief's real identity" which would actually answer the question of Yugi's illogical, time consuming motives.

Finally, the duel began, with the clock slowly counting down. A metaphorical clock this time, not a literal VHS timer.

Here's an interesting sidebar for those of you who didn't keep up with the times. Remember that flashback where Kaiba states he's not going to Duelist Kingdom, and that he was going to run away and join the circus? (kidding) Some of you may not remember, but Kaiba tosses Mokuba a card before he leaves and says he can have it – it was always Mokuba's favorite. Ever wonder where that plot void to nowhere came from? In some of the earlier, non 4kids-efied, source material, what he threw Mokuba was the key to the company's important documents. Isn't that so much more meaningful? Seto trusts his little brother with the keys to his existence. Deep as [4filter].

But not in this version. Nope, all we get is a "I'm going to run away now but here `ya go. I'm sure this card will be able to glue back the broken pieces of your now twice abandoned heart" parting gift. Which I think is cheep as [4filter].

Although I'm just your underpaid, under appreciated narrator. No one cares what I think.

Mokuba started the duel with the 'Man-Eating Plant' as his offensive, playing no face downs or any other sort of strategical defense. Amy could see in his eyes the anger he was struggling with, which called for her sympathies. At the same time there was a nagging question arising about how the little brother of Seto Kaiba could be so bad at Duel Monsters.

Summoning his 'Winged Dragon' (1400/1200), Yami prepared a counter attack. All Mokuba could do is scold him, saying "Ha! Bad choice Yugi. My 'Man-Eating Plant' will eat your dragon alive." On the ground, Amy knew her face sagged in exhaustion. That... didn't even make sense. Not just in the game, but if it had been a real dragon verse a real carnivorous plant it still wouldn't have a prayer.

Although her attention was pulled back in when Mokuba starting to talk again. Only this time, it wasn't about fantasy physics or even Duel Monsters. "So now, you're finally gonna pay for what you did, Yugi." Everyone (almost everyone) was caught off guard by that. Tristan, Joey, and Téa couldn't imagine why anyone would want revenge on their pure little friend. Even in their earliest history when Yami used to murder people, it was never a fight he started. It was hard to imagine anyone coming after Yugi with a grudge (although the fact that everyone who might was either dead, arrested, or under 24-hour white jacket watch helped with that). "And your stupid dragon's gonna be plant food."

Mokuba ordered his attack, causing clear, gooey saliva to drip from the mouth of his plant. Before it could go any further, Yami ordered his counterattack. 'Winged Dragon's mouth filled a substance as well. Although this was fiercer than saliva. In a moments time fire grouped into a ball and launched brutally towards 'Man-Eating Plant', enveloping it in flames.

**Mokuba: 1400**

**Yami: 2000**

"H-huh? My monster lost?" the black haired boy raised an eyebrow.

Indeed it did Mokuba. Fancy that.

"You can't win a duel with cards that don't rightfully belong to you." Yami's voice traveled calmly, but sternly across the field. He strained to help Mokuba understand the only truth Yami knew. "How could your heart ever live in cards that belong to someone else?"

Actually it lost because 'Man-Eating Plant' had a cruddy 800 points, but hey, again, who cares what I think (and yes, that is factoring any field-point bonus would only bring it to 1040). I wouldn't want to spoil the morally correct, life lesson learning mood.

Mokuba's sneers could be heard under his bandanna, "I don't believe in that 'Heart of the Cards' stuff you keep preachin` about. Cards have nothing to do with heart. It's all about power."

"Alright, alright. Geezus. I don't know how much more of this I can take." Amy let out a huff. A feeling was stirring up inside her, a fidgety, uncomfortable feeling. Amy's brain knew two things, that Mokuba had a good logical point, even though she would argue the secret is strategy over power. Endurance even. Anything was better than "the key to winning is bonding with the the cards in your hand". At least out loud it sounded silly.

However, the other thing her brain knew is that, no matter how much in the moment she denied it, when she dueled Amy felt something. Thoughts of PaniK filled her memory, and the emotions that came with it. The trust and attachment she had to her own cards. They had been apart of her.

So, naturally, Amy took these conflicting feelings to heart and dealt with them the only way she knew how. By changing the subject. All eyes were on her as she waved her hands around. "Look, whether or not there's something to the 'Heart of the Cards' isn't why you're here, is it? I think it's high time you stopped and explained to Yugi what he's doing in this duel with you. Cause we all know it ain't about winning Star Chips."

That seemed to strike a chord with Mokuba. His nose wrinkled from underneath the bandanna. "You wanna know why Yugi here? Because he broke up my family, and now he has to pay." Yami closed his eyes, searching for that link to Kaiba he sensed.

Meanwhile, Amy sneered back, twice as heavy and three times as disciplinary as Mokuba's, and added and arm cross for good measure. The boy may have even flinched. "Didn't your brother ever teach you not to lie. That's not why you're here either." Slowly, Yami's eyes opened and he focused ahead. His face lost all clouds of doubt that were hanging over it.

"That's it, I knew I sensed a connection to Kaiba. You're his brother. You're Mokuba."

Oh no, not the big reveal. How did Yami possibly know it was Mokuba oh noooooo.

What? My patience with this subplot is limited. Consequently, my sarcasm is unlimited.

Mokuba pulled off his bandanna in surprise, and with enough of a reaction shot to cover for all of us he said, "How did you know?" but quickly changed his position on the subject, "Well, it doesn't matter."

Eyes widened in the crowd below. "He wasn't kidding, it's really Mokuba Kaiba." Bakura gasped. Amy just rolled her eyes at was what soon to be a repetitive squawk of already established facts.

"It _is_ Kaiba's little brother." Téa, check.

"Shoulda` known Kaiba had something to do with this." Joey, check.

"This must be about Yugi beating Kaiba in a duel." Tristan, check.

With Tristan making his stupid and obvious comment, that takes care of everyone on my list that needs to say something pointless even you it doesn't help the plot, nor reveal, along. Back to the story.

Mokuba ripped off his hat and let his long locks of black hair fall down his back. Without any regards to it, or the environment, he tossed it to the side never to be seen by the screenwriters again. "That's right, Seto Kaiba is my brother and he's the best duelist that there ever was. But now, thanks to Yugi, he's gone. And Pegasus is trying to take over KaibaCorp."

"Pegasus wants Kaiba Corp.?"

Then four heads turned towards Amy. I'll let you guess which. All at once, as soon as Mokuba's story left his mouth, eight pair of eyes were on her. An act that she was generally surprised at, and maybe even a little confused. Enough to earn a bored, "What?"

Heads bobbed this way and that, Bakura tried to avert his eyes and pretend like he hadn't reflexed like the others. Téa shifted awkwardly and Joey clasped his hands behind his head with "Nothin`" whistle as a reply.

To which she eyed each of her friends and said, "No, really, what? Why are you all looking at me?"

Three heads turned slowly again, but this time to glance at Tristan. Amy followed suit. Tristan, on the other hand, was making a large effort to look as far away as possible and all of a sudden not be a part of the conversation. He refused look her in the eyes. That was when it all became clear.

"Oh my gwad, you little moth ball. You totally ratted on me, didn't you?" Amy's gaze lit up on fire.

"I wouldn't call it ratting."

"You told them what I told you, _in confidence._"

Tristan didn't so much look guilty as he looked like he had been caught. There's a difference, I swear. Looking guilty implies that guilt, which implies consciously or unconsciously thinking about the moral direction of ones actions. Being discovered without seeing a mistake or action as morally wrong is more along the lines of getting caught. It was clear to her that Tristan hadn't thought about twice about it. Even now he didn't get the big deal. How do I know? Because he answered with, "You never said it was a secret."

If she lived in a more cartoon-ish world, surely steam would be coming out of her ears. "I didn't think I had to. The subject matter kind of speaks for itself."

Téa stepped in here, feeling as if there was a good reason for it all and she needed to explain. "It wasn't Tristan's fault. He had to."

Bakura even added, being the power duo they are, "When he brought you back you were unconscious. We we're all worried about you."

"Oh yeah?" the words were so excitingly livid, "Did that fudge face happen to mention the reason I was unconscious was because he punched me out? That ever come up while he was spilling all my secrets?" Faces across the crowd gave her all the answer she needed. "Hmp. Didn't think so." So Amy folded her arms and puffed out her chest again. To be honest, now that they already knew, it was a far question. She understood that. Now was as good a time as ever to swash this. So Amy brought her tone down to a responsible, even respectable amount. "Look, I only helped Pegasus plan Duelist Kingdom. Rules, regulations, guest list. That's it. I had nothing to do with the Kaiba brother's company takeover. The only time the name Seto Kaiba ever came out of my mouth was when I suggested him on the guest list."

Amy then placed her hand on her hip and the other running through her hair. One could even say it was in a thoughtful manner. I know, weird right? "That's a whole level of cooperate sabotage out of my league."

Whether Mokuba couldn't hear the shenanigans in the grass, or didn't care to listen, he gazed silently down at the Ring as memories flooded through him. Memories that made his shoulders weigh in distress. Pegasus meeting with the big five. Kemo grabbing him from behind. The sheer stress of it all was evident on his face. "I don't know what you did to my big brother when you dueled, Yugi, but ever since that defeat he hasn't been the same."

His face made Amy's stomach drop a little. Up till now, this had been just fun and games, and she hadn't realized before that Maximillon Pegasus was honestly ruining this boy's life. That Mokuba was just as lost and alone as his dialogue claimed to be. Before she knew what she was saying, Amy found herself taking over the explanation. "Pegasus met with a couple of suits secretly. By beating Yugi, he would insure himself a merger with their company." Did didn't take Amy long to figure out why she had chimed in. Anything to make Mokuba's weary voice stop talking.

Honestly, Amy was not equipped to handle this level of child sadness.

"Or at least those are some rumors I heard before I left. But I didn't hear that it was KaibaCorp..."

Up on the ring, Mokuba was flipping between rage and loneliness. Anger at Pegasus for trying to take over, at the big five for betraying the company, at Yugi for sending his brother astray, and at the same time desperate for his family. "They told Pegasus to get rid of Seto for good. And then to kidnap me to control it. And then to beat Yugi. That's why I have to beat you Yugi. And if I can't..." Mokuba's voice trailed off, his arms lowering slowly.

Meanwhile Téa, after much thought, was finally able to put the pieces together. "I think I get it now. Mokuba isn't dueling out of revenge." Her statement even caught Yami's attestation, because up until this point it had sure looked like it. "Pegasus needs to defeat Yugi in order to make the merger. But if he defeats Yugi now, Pegasus will never get to, and that will void the deal." Tristan and Joey met this explanation with blank looks, but the others understood.

Yami even exclaimed, "Ah, that must be it." as he now had a whole new light on Mokuba's motives. And now knowing the problem, the could find a solution. Just as he turned back to face his opponent, Yami realized that Mokuba was gone. He wasn't on his platform, and he wasn't standing on the ground. Suddenly the small, black haired body leaped onto his platform.

Another sidebar here, last one I promise, can that kid jump or what? I mean he hauled [4filter] like six feet up to Yugi's platform. Either this child is some kind of ninja, or he's got Steven Universe level of flotation powers.

"If I can't beat you, Yugi, I'll have you disqualified." Mokuba made a grab for the Star Chips as Yami made a grab for him. Using that moment he ducked under Yami's arm, and with three more star chips scurried back onto the ground.

Yami yelled out for his chips and the other gasped, but Mokuba knew it was all for nothing. They would never catch him now. He had accomplished what he came here for. Yugi was now out of chips and KaibaCorp. had won a much needed victory.

That was why, when Amy seemed to jump out of no where, Mokuba had not clue as to what was going on. All he understood was that he was falling, and with him it felt like the company was too. They were both tumbling down to get a face full of dirt. He didn't feel Amy's tackle as she grasped onto his waist to pull him down, and he didn't feel her let go as they began their decent, so she would fall on top of him. He didn't see her bare arms skid into the dirt beside him, or her wince at that. All he saw was the ground. All he felt was defeat.

Maybe it was this feeling that made Seto run away. To have his near victory dragged down by Yugi Muto and his friends.

Finally, Mokuba saw her kneeling in front of him, fists wrapped around his collar. Amy's face was aggressive for a minute as she said, "Listen to me kid." and then it went away. Her anger was replaced by something else. Amy's grip didn't soften, it disappeared. The muscles in her mouth loosened and even sagged. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that. I can't imagine having to hear that your brother's going to be gotten rid of or that you'll spend the rest of your life being a corporate puppet. I can't pretend to know what you're feeling, but if it's being alone, you're not. There are people right in front of you who aren't so different. You're trying to protect something, but Yugi and Joey have their own things to protect too. The difference is that they're doing it together." She looked up, Mokuba's wondering face now blurring away in the foreground. Instead, Amy focused on the crystal clear image of Yugi, not Yami, but Yugi trying to catch up with them. "We all do better when we work as a team. Join our team, Mokuba."

Mokuba was trying to understand her words, they left him with one burning question. "But... Seto..." How could he possibly trust the people who made his brother leave him?

"Seto isn't gone, I promise. He's just trying to figure his life out. When Yugi defeated him, he was able to show Seto that he was trying to win by hurting people. You were there, weren't you?" Mokuba nodded slightly, "Remember how he trashed Yugi's grandpa to get 'Blue Eyes'? Your brother is learning a long overdue lesson, and when he's finished he'll be back. You should too Mokuba."

"I should...what?"

"Learn your lesson." Amy started to get up, and in the process she latched onto Mokuba's underarm and pulled him to his feet. "You stole a kid's Star Chips and deck to get here. And now he's being shipped home, without having a chance to play. Seto's fixing his mistakes, and now is your chance to fix yours."

Before he knew what was happening, Mokuba was surrounded from all sides. It wasn't entrapment, it was a circle of support. Somewhere in his little adolescence head, Mokuba nodded and muttered, "O-okay." without being completely sure of why he said it.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

"There's the boat, I can see it!" Joey waved to the others as he ran. The Brooklyn Blonde was far ahead of Yugi, Amy, and Mokuba especially.

"I can't believe we caught up with it." Bakura exclaimed in between gasps of breath.

"I can't believe that nine times out of ten today we ended up running. [4filter] running." Amy's face was listless, short on all kinds of endurance. If she didn't know that Mokuba was going to run away before, she never would have caught up with him. So, so very out of shape.

This is why Amy lacked a witty comeback when Téa retorted with, "I told you we'd be back at the docks with time to spare." Amy let her tall adversary have this one win.

Mokuba pulled ahead of the others. Maybe it was because he felt responsible and duty bound, or maybe not. No matter what he felt, little Kaiba knew that he had the keys to getting that kid off the boat. "Hang on! I've got your chips."

The boat had only started to inch away when Mokuba got to the edge of the dock. He held the chips out as proof. "I've got to return that kid's Star Chips to him." All eight chips looked very much alive in Mokuba's hand. The five he had and the three Yugi bet with. Kemo took on glance at them and grunted.

It was a no tolerance grunt. Cruel even. These were the moments the Kemo lived for in this job. The Robo-Ken lifted his arm, but no one was fool enough to think he was going to accept them. Although no one thought that he would knock Mokuba's hand to the side and send the Star Chips flying, plunging into the ocean below.

"Yugi's Star Chips!" Tea's shrill screech floated below the salty air, dense with the realization.

Amy felt her muscles flare. The others stopped at the docks just in time to watch the chips sink. But she didn't, she couldn't. Her eyes flashed as she readied her shoulder to and head to do the one thing she had wanted to do for so long, ram Kemo overboard where he deserved. "You complete [4filter]."

It was like she had hit a wall, he only staggered back a tiny bit before regaining his composure. With a turning ricochet, the Star Chips weren't the only things to fall into the water. Amy soon joined them.

Someone called her name as the water approach. Then the blue turned to black and the smell of the sea disappeared. Instead her nose began to sting as water invade her nostrils and skin shivered at the unexpected snap of the sea.

Amy surfaced in mere moments, taking in a frantic breath and pinching her nose at the discomfort. Becoming aware of sounds again, she heard another name being called. It was Yugi, they were calling Yugi's name. With the water out of her eyes and and the picture coming into view saw Kemo now holding onto Yugi with his creepy [4filter] child gabbing grip.

"Let him go!" The others protested. Things were heated now, anyone could feel it. It was more than disgust, Tristan and Joey were furious.

Kemo smiled that equally disgusting smile. "What did I say? Anyone with no Star Chips gets on the boat."

Amy's head bobbed underwater wanting to shout _'You moron! That's Yugi Muto. What do you think you're doing?!' _but didn't have the time. She wanted to tell Kemo to put him down or else Pegasus will kill him. If he couldn't duel Yugi, then Pegasus could kiss his Solid Vision Technology goodbye, and Cecelia with it. Surely Kemo should know better.

Just who's hand was he trying to force?

Amy broke the surface again just in time to hear Kemo laugh that sickeningly "I need an adult" laugh. Finally, she could take in a breath, and then let it out with, "You can't do that!"

"Oh? Can't I? Orders from Pegasus himself."

She paddled over to the boat just in time to see Weevil pick up an oar and squabble, "Oh no you don't." in that that creepy crawly Jimmy Zoppi voice. There was absolute no time for that. Weevil's swing missed by an unimpressive gap, letting Amy grab onto the oar and use it to pusher herself up. For good measure she also shoved him into the water and stood where Weevil once sat.

Probably not necessary, but you know, Amy's a bully so she really didn't care.

"Your orders must be all mixed up. He's off limits."

"You wish." The wince in Yugi's face made it clear that the more Kemo spoke, the more restrictive his grip was. "If Yugi Muto looses his Star Chips he's to be shipped off immediately and never allowed back. Word for word from the boss."

Joey and Tristan had their face muscles all twisted like they were ready to go for blood. If they did Téa was clearly not going to stop them. Then there was Mokuba, the most important of all of them. He still seemed to be in shock, processing the event, unsure what to think of the situation in front of him.

There was still hope. It occurred to Amy that Yugi was being eliminated on grounds of not having any chips. That didn't have to be true. The sound of a zipper came muffled from the boat. Amy's pouch. She felt around, glasses case, school ID, and then two little Star Chips that she squeezed in her palm.

This was the answer. It had to be. Amy opened her mouth to roar up to the docks, but Yugi's muffled and desperate breath stopped her. "D...don't do it."

She felt herself pale. How did he even know what she planned? In his position Yugi could only glance at Amy from the most strained peripherals, not enough to even see or process her actions. Still, knew Amy. He knew what she was thinking.

The others didn't feel what Amy felt, so they were rather confused by Yugi's outburst. Joey at least translated "Don't do it." to mean "Please stop." Which, given the circumstances was a fair assumption. He retorted with, "You heard him, get your paws o-"

"I...I told you." Yugi's continued breath cut Joey off, and quite frankly stunned anfdconfused him greater. The result was the blond actually shutting him mouth. "Th...ey're yours. To accomplish your goals..."

"But Yugi...!" she thought it but couldn't get her mouth to say it. '_But you are my goal.'_

"I won't ac...cpet them... if you... do."

Amy could only growl back. Why hadn't Yami taken over? Where are you Yami? You're suppose to protect him. "Don't be stubborn!" she wanted nothing more right now than Yami to pop up and give this guy the thrashing he deserved. "There isn't another way."

"There... has to... be."

That was when Kemo's smile got wider than it had ever before. "What a lot of fuss for a little runt. If it mean so much I'm sure we could work something out."

One Brooklyn phrase "Whad`ya mean?" later everyone was all ears.

Téa was the first to stern her face and step forward. "Name it. Name it and we'll do it."

"Hold on Téa, this could be a trap."

"Oh, it's definitely a trap, but he's not leaving us when any other choice." Tristan was clearly siding with Téa, and Joey followed with a nod. That left Bakura out voted, out manned, and ill prepared for the trip to the shadow realm [hell] and back they might have to take to get Yugi his chips.

"It's simple. The Kaiba brat is to meet me at arena 146 for a duel in exactly four hours."

Mokuba's already wide eyes widened a bit more. "Me?"

"You, twerp."

"But I don't have a deck." Mokuba glanced at the poor boy in the pink shirt he had doomed. "Not a real one anyways."

"We've got a special deck already prepared for you."

Mokuba didn't know what to say, none of them did. None of them could figure how they could possibly force the child to do more when he had already been through so much. Yet they were cornered, knowing they couldn't tell him to reject. If he did, Yugi's last chance would disappear. Only Yugi was brave enough to say anything in between his struggled breath. "Lea...ve him... alone."

Even with that, no, maybe because of that, Mokuba shook his head. It wasn't a 'yes' or a 'no' shake, but to clear his mind from the jumbles, doubt, and confusion. Amy, rocking steadily on the boat couldn't breath. She was too paranoid that if she did it would upset the delicate balance. This was everything Mokuba worked for, a half hour ago, everything he wanted. Mokuba could refuse now and his brother's company would be safe. She couldn't imagine why he would take the offer, but didn't dare imagine what the results would be.

"No, I'll do it. You said we were a team now, and I know that if it were me, you'd duel for me."

Damn straight.

"And I'm sure you'd do the same if Seto was in trouble, too."

Meh.

"I'll be there, and I'll duel and all win." Mokuba sounded so sure of his words that it seemed to rally the tropes behind in. They fist pumped and let out determine, yet defensive, "Yeah."s Even Amy couldn't argue. In fact, she was... proud. A weight had sky rocketed off her shoulders and in that moment she didn't think that she'd be any prouder if Mokuba was her own brother.

Everyone felt the same way. They were going to save him.


End file.
